Abnormal dynamics of language in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Stephane, Massoud; Kuskowski, Michael; Gundel, Jeanette

2014-05-30

Language could be conceptualized as a dynamic system that includes multiple interactive levels (sub-lexical, lexical, sentence, and discourse) and components (phonology, semantics, and syntax). In schizophrenia, abnormalities are observed at all language elements (levels and components) but the dynamic between these elements remains unclear. We hypothesize that the dynamics between language elements in schizophrenia is abnormal and explore how this dynamic is altered. We, first, investigated language elements with comparable procedures in patients and healthy controls. Second, using measures of reaction time, we performed multiple linear regression analyses to evaluate the inter-relationships among language elements and the effect of group on these relationships. Patients significantly differed from controls with respect to sub-lexical/lexical, lexical/sentence, and sentence/discourse regression coefficients. The intercepts of the regression slopes increased in the same order above (from lower to higher levels) in patients but not in controls. Regression coefficients between syntax and both sentence level and discourse level semantics did not differentiate patients from controls. This study indicates that the dynamics between language elements is abnormal in schizophrenia. In patients, top-down flow of linguistic information might be reduced, and the relationship between phonology and semantics but not between syntax and semantics appears to be altered. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Second Language Developmental Dynamics: How Dynamic Systems Theory Accounts for Issues in Second Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosmawati

2014-01-01

Dynamic systems theory (DST) is presented in this article as a suitable approach to research the acquisition of second language (L2) because of its close alignment with the process of second language learning. Through a process of identifying and comparing the characteristics of a dynamic system with the process of L2 learning, this article…

Combining Static Model Checking with Dynamic Enforcement Using the Statecall Policy Language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madhavapeddy, Anil

Internet protocols encapsulate a significant amount of state, making implementing the host software complex. In this paper, we define the Statecall Policy Language (SPL) which provides a usable middle ground between ad-hoc coding and formal reasoning. It enables programmers to embed automata in their code which can be statically model-checked using SPIN and dynamically enforced. The performance overheads are minimal, and the automata also provide higher-level debugging capabilities. We also describe some practical uses of SPL by describing the automata used in an SSH server written entirely in OCaml/SPL.

Dynamic Assessment of Language Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Deirdre

2015-01-01

The paper reports a study of a narrative-based Dynamic Assessment (DA) procedure developed in the USA that is used in the UK with children with developmental language disabilities. Three monolingual English children with language disabilities are assessed by a speech/language pathologist/therapist who is learning to work with DA in collaboration…

Principles of parametric estimation in modeling language competition.

PubMed

Zhang, Menghan; Gong, Tao

2013-06-11

It is generally difficult to define reasonable parameters and interpret their values in mathematical models of social phenomena. Rather than directly fitting abstract parameters against empirical data, we should define some concrete parameters to denote the sociocultural factors relevant for particular phenomena, and compute the values of these parameters based upon the corresponding empirical data. Taking the example of modeling studies of language competition, we propose a language diffusion principle and two language inheritance principles to compute two critical parameters, namely the impacts and inheritance rates of competing languages, in our language competition model derived from the Lotka-Volterra competition model in evolutionary biology. These principles assign explicit sociolinguistic meanings to those parameters and calculate their values from the relevant data of population censuses and language surveys. Using four examples of language competition, we illustrate that our language competition model with thus-estimated parameter values can reliably replicate and predict the dynamics of language competition, and it is especially useful in cases lacking direct competition data.

Principles of parametric estimation in modeling language competition

PubMed Central

Zhang, Menghan; Gong, Tao

2013-01-01

It is generally difficult to define reasonable parameters and interpret their values in mathematical models of social phenomena. Rather than directly fitting abstract parameters against empirical data, we should define some concrete parameters to denote the sociocultural factors relevant for particular phenomena, and compute the values of these parameters based upon the corresponding empirical data. Taking the example of modeling studies of language competition, we propose a language diffusion principle and two language inheritance principles to compute two critical parameters, namely the impacts and inheritance rates of competing languages, in our language competition model derived from the Lotka–Volterra competition model in evolutionary biology. These principles assign explicit sociolinguistic meanings to those parameters and calculate their values from the relevant data of population censuses and language surveys. Using four examples of language competition, we illustrate that our language competition model with thus-estimated parameter values can reliably replicate and predict the dynamics of language competition, and it is especially useful in cases lacking direct competition data. PMID:23716678

General three-state model with biased population replacement: Analytical solution and application to language dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colaiori, Francesca; Castellano, Claudio; Cuskley, Christine F.; Loreto, Vittorio; Pugliese, Martina; Tria, Francesca

2015-01-01

Empirical evidence shows that the rate of irregular usage of English verbs exhibits discontinuity as a function of their frequency: the most frequent verbs tend to be totally irregular. We aim to qualitatively understand the origin of this feature by studying simple agent-based models of language dynamics, where each agent adopts an inflectional state for a verb and may change it upon interaction with other agents. At the same time, agents are replaced at some rate by new agents adopting the regular form. In models with only two inflectional states (regular and irregular), we observe that either all verbs regularize irrespective of their frequency, or a continuous transition occurs between a low-frequency state, where the lemma becomes fully regular, and a high-frequency one, where both forms coexist. Introducing a third (mixed) state, wherein agents may use either form, we find that a third, qualitatively different behavior may emerge, namely, a discontinuous transition in frequency. We introduce and solve analytically a very general class of three-state models that allows us to fully understand these behaviors in a unified framework. Realistic sets of interaction rules, including the well-known naming game (NG) model, result in a discontinuous transition, in agreement with recent empirical findings. We also point out that the distinction between speaker and hearer in the interaction has no effect on the collective behavior. The results for the general three-state model, although discussed in terms of language dynamics, are widely applicable.

Plenary Speech: Researching Complex Dynamic Systems--"Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling" in the Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dörnyei, Zoltán

2014-01-01

While approaching second language acquisition from a complex dynamic systems perspective makes a lot of intuitive sense, it is difficult for a number of reasons to operationalise such a dynamic approach in research terms. For example, the most common research paradigms in the social sciences tend to examine variables in relative isolation rather…

Dynamic Learning Objects to Teach Java Programming Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narasimhamurthy, Uma; Al Shawkani, Khuloud

2010-01-01

This article describes a model for teaching Java Programming Language through Dynamic Learning Objects. The design of the learning objects was based on effective learning design principles to help students learn the complex topic of Java Programming. Visualization was also used to facilitate the learning of the concepts. (Contains 1 figure and 2…

A model of the mechanisms of language extinction and revitalization strategies to save endangered languages.

PubMed

Fernando, Chrisantha; Valijärvi, Riitta-Liisa; Goldstein, Richard A

2010-02-01

Why and how have languages died out? We have devised a mathematical model to help us understand how languages go extinct. We use the model to ask whether language extinction can be prevented in the future and why it may have occurred in the past. A growing number of mathematical models of language dynamics have been developed to study the conditions for language coexistence and death, yet their phenomenological approach compromises their ability to influence language revitalization policy. In contrast, here we model the mechanisms underlying language competition and look at how these mechanisms are influenced by specific language revitalization interventions, namely, private interventions to raise the status of the language and thus promote language learning at home, public interventions to increase the use of the minority language, and explicit teaching of the minority language in schools. Our model reveals that it is possible to preserve a minority language but that continued long-term interventions will likely be necessary. We identify the parameters that determine which interventions work best under certain linguistic and societal circumstances. In this way the efficacy of interventions of various types can be identified and predicted. Although there are qualitative arguments for these parameter values (e.g., the responsiveness of children to learning a language as a function of the proportion of conversations heard in that language, the relative importance of conversations heard in the family and elsewhere, and the amplification of spoken to heard conversations of the high-status language because of the media), extensive quantitative data are lacking in this field. We propose a way to measure these parameters, allowing our model, as well as others models in the field, to be validated.

Cortico-striatal language pathways dynamically adjust for syntactic complexity: A computational study.

PubMed

Szalisznyó, Krisztina; Silverstein, David; Teichmann, Marc; Duffau, Hugues; Smits, Anja

2017-01-01

A growing body of literature supports a key role of fronto-striatal circuits in language perception. It is now known that the striatum plays a role in engaging attentional resources and linguistic rule computation while also serving phonological short-term memory capabilities. The ventral semantic and the dorsal phonological stream dichotomy assumed for spoken language processing also seems to play a role in cortico-striatal perception. Based on recent studies that correlate deep Broca-striatal pathways with complex syntax performance, we used a previously developed computational model of frontal-striatal syntax circuits and hypothesized that different parallel language pathways may contribute to canonical and non-canonical sentence comprehension separately. We modified and further analyzed a thematic role assignment task and corresponding reservoir computing model of language circuits, as previously developed by Dominey and coworkers. We examined the models performance under various parameter regimes, by influencing how fast the presented language input decays and altering the temporal dynamics of activated word representations. This enabled us to quantify canonical and non-canonical sentence comprehension abilities. The modeling results suggest that separate cortico-cortical and cortico-striatal circuits may be recruited differently for processing syntactically more difficult and less complicated sentences. Alternatively, a single circuit would need to dynamically and adaptively adjust to syntactic complexity. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Modeling Coevolution between Language and Memory Capacity during Language Origin

PubMed Central

Gong, Tao; Shuai, Lan

2015-01-01

Memory is essential to many cognitive tasks including language. Apart from empirical studies of memory effects on language acquisition and use, there lack sufficient evolutionary explorations on whether a high level of memory capacity is prerequisite for language and whether language origin could influence memory capacity. In line with evolutionary theories that natural selection refined language-related cognitive abilities, we advocated a coevolution scenario between language and memory capacity, which incorporated the genetic transmission of individual memory capacity, cultural transmission of idiolects, and natural and cultural selections on individual reproduction and language teaching. To illustrate the coevolution dynamics, we adopted a multi-agent computational model simulating the emergence of lexical items and simple syntax through iterated communications. Simulations showed that: along with the origin of a communal language, an initially-low memory capacity for acquired linguistic knowledge was boosted; and such coherent increase in linguistic understandability and memory capacities reflected a language-memory coevolution; and such coevolution stopped till memory capacities became sufficient for language communications. Statistical analyses revealed that the coevolution was realized mainly by natural selection based on individual communicative success in cultural transmissions. This work elaborated the biology-culture parallelism of language evolution, demonstrated the driving force of culturally-constituted factors for natural selection of individual cognitive abilities, and suggested that the degree difference in language-related cognitive abilities between humans and nonhuman animals could result from a coevolution with language. PMID:26544876

Modeling Coevolution between Language and Memory Capacity during Language Origin.

PubMed

Gong, Tao; Shuai, Lan

2015-01-01

Memory is essential to many cognitive tasks including language. Apart from empirical studies of memory effects on language acquisition and use, there lack sufficient evolutionary explorations on whether a high level of memory capacity is prerequisite for language and whether language origin could influence memory capacity. In line with evolutionary theories that natural selection refined language-related cognitive abilities, we advocated a coevolution scenario between language and memory capacity, which incorporated the genetic transmission of individual memory capacity, cultural transmission of idiolects, and natural and cultural selections on individual reproduction and language teaching. To illustrate the coevolution dynamics, we adopted a multi-agent computational model simulating the emergence of lexical items and simple syntax through iterated communications. Simulations showed that: along with the origin of a communal language, an initially-low memory capacity for acquired linguistic knowledge was boosted; and such coherent increase in linguistic understandability and memory capacities reflected a language-memory coevolution; and such coevolution stopped till memory capacities became sufficient for language communications. Statistical analyses revealed that the coevolution was realized mainly by natural selection based on individual communicative success in cultural transmissions. This work elaborated the biology-culture parallelism of language evolution, demonstrated the driving force of culturally-constituted factors for natural selection of individual cognitive abilities, and suggested that the degree difference in language-related cognitive abilities between humans and nonhuman animals could result from a coevolution with language.

Language Teacher Cognitions: Complex Dynamic Systems?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feryok, Anne

2010-01-01

Language teacher cognition research is a growing field. In recent years several features of language teacher cognitions have been noted: they can be complex, ranging over a number of different subjects; they can be dynamic, changing over time and under different influences; and they can be systems, forming unified and cohesive personal or…

Dynamic Assessment of Children with Language Impairments: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hasson, Natalie; Botting, Nicola

2010-01-01

This article describes the construction of a procedure for dynamic assessment of the expressive grammar of children already identified with language impairments. Few instruments exist for the dynamic assessment of language, and those that have been developed have been largely used to successfully differentiate language impaired from culturally…

Language Model Applications to Spelling with Brain-Computer Interfaces

PubMed Central

Mora-Cortes, Anderson; Manyakov, Nikolay V.; Chumerin, Nikolay; Van Hulle, Marc M.

2014-01-01

Within the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) community, Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have raised great hopes as they provide alternative communication means for persons with disabilities bypassing the need for speech and other motor activities. Although significant advancements have been realized in the last decade, applications of language models (e.g., word prediction, completion) have only recently started to appear in BCI systems. The main goal of this article is to review the language model applications that supplement non-invasive BCI-based communication systems by discussing their potential and limitations, and to discern future trends. First, a brief overview of the most prominent BCI spelling systems is given, followed by an in-depth discussion of the language models applied to them. These language models are classified according to their functionality in the context of BCI-based spelling: the static/dynamic nature of the user interface, the use of error correction and predictive spelling, and the potential to improve their classification performance by using language models. To conclude, the review offers an overview of the advantages and challenges when implementing language models in BCI-based communication systems when implemented in conjunction with other AAL technologies. PMID:24675760

Biological Dynamics Markup Language (BDML): an open format for representing quantitative biological dynamics data

PubMed Central

Kyoda, Koji; Tohsato, Yukako; Ho, Kenneth H. L.; Onami, Shuichi

2015-01-01

Motivation: Recent progress in live-cell imaging and modeling techniques has resulted in generation of a large amount of quantitative data (from experimental measurements and computer simulations) on spatiotemporal dynamics of biological objects such as molecules, cells and organisms. Although many research groups have independently dedicated their efforts to developing software tools for visualizing and analyzing these data, these tools are often not compatible with each other because of different data formats. Results: We developed an open unified format, Biological Dynamics Markup Language (BDML; current version: 0.2), which provides a basic framework for representing quantitative biological dynamics data for objects ranging from molecules to cells to organisms. BDML is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML). Its advantages are machine and human readability and extensibility. BDML will improve the efficiency of development and evaluation of software tools for data visualization and analysis. Availability and implementation: A specification and a schema file for BDML are freely available online at http://ssbd.qbic.riken.jp/bdml/. Contact: sonami@riken.jp Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:25414366

Biological Dynamics Markup Language (BDML): an open format for representing quantitative biological dynamics data.

PubMed

Kyoda, Koji; Tohsato, Yukako; Ho, Kenneth H L; Onami, Shuichi

2015-04-01

Recent progress in live-cell imaging and modeling techniques has resulted in generation of a large amount of quantitative data (from experimental measurements and computer simulations) on spatiotemporal dynamics of biological objects such as molecules, cells and organisms. Although many research groups have independently dedicated their efforts to developing software tools for visualizing and analyzing these data, these tools are often not compatible with each other because of different data formats. We developed an open unified format, Biological Dynamics Markup Language (BDML; current version: 0.2), which provides a basic framework for representing quantitative biological dynamics data for objects ranging from molecules to cells to organisms. BDML is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML). Its advantages are machine and human readability and extensibility. BDML will improve the efficiency of development and evaluation of software tools for data visualization and analysis. A specification and a schema file for BDML are freely available online at http://ssbd.qbic.riken.jp/bdml/. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

A Neurobehavioral Model of Flexible Spatial Language Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipinski, John; Schneegans, Sebastian; Sandamirskaya, Yulia; Spencer, John P.; Schoner, Gregor

2012-01-01

We propose a neural dynamic model that specifies how low-level visual processes can be integrated with higher level cognition to achieve flexible spatial language behaviors. This model uses real-word visual input that is linked to relational spatial descriptions through a neural mechanism for reference frame transformations. We demonstrate that…

Exploring the use of dynamic language assessment with deaf children, who use American Sign Language: Two case studies.

PubMed

Mann, Wolfgang; Peña, Elizabeth D; Morgan, Gary

2014-01-01

We describe a model for assessment of lexical-semantic organization skills in American Sign Language (ASL) within the framework of dynamic vocabulary assessment and discuss the applicability and validity of the use of mediated learning experiences (MLE) with deaf signing children. Two elementary students (ages 7;6 and 8;4) completed a set of four vocabulary tasks and received two 30-minute mediations in ASL. Each session consisted of several scripted activities focusing on the use of categorization. Both had experienced difficulties in providing categorically related responses in one of the vocabulary tasks used previously. Results showed that the two students exhibited notable differences with regards to their learning pace, information uptake, and effort required by the mediator. Furthermore, we observed signs of a shift in strategic behavior by the lower performing student during the second mediation. Results suggest that the use of dynamic assessment procedures in a vocabulary context was helpful in understanding children's strategies as related to learning potential. These results are discussed in terms of deaf children's cognitive modifiability with implications for planning instruction and how MLE can be used with a population that uses ASL. The reader will (1) recognize the challenges in appropriate language assessment of deaf signing children; (2) recall the three areas explored to investigate whether a dynamic assessment approach is sensitive to differences in deaf signing children's language learning profiles (3) discuss how dynamic assessment procedures can make deaf signing children's individual language learning differences visible. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A MODELING AND SIMULATION LANGUAGE FOR BIOLOGICAL CELLS WITH COUPLED MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES

PubMed Central

Somogyi, Endre; Glazier, James A.

2017-01-01

Biological cells are the prototypical example of active matter. Cells sense and respond to mechanical, chemical and electrical environmental stimuli with a range of behaviors, including dynamic changes in morphology and mechanical properties, chemical uptake and secretion, cell differentiation, proliferation, death, and migration. Modeling and simulation of such dynamic phenomena poses a number of computational challenges. A modeling language describing cellular dynamics must naturally represent complex intra and extra-cellular spatial structures and coupled mechanical, chemical and electrical processes. Domain experts will find a modeling language most useful when it is based on concepts, terms and principles native to the problem domain. A compiler must then be able to generate an executable model from this physically motivated description. Finally, an executable model must efficiently calculate the time evolution of such dynamic and inhomogeneous phenomena. We present a spatial hybrid systems modeling language, compiler and mesh-free Lagrangian based simulation engine which will enable domain experts to define models using natural, biologically motivated constructs and to simulate time evolution of coupled cellular, mechanical and chemical processes acting on a time varying number of cells and their environment. PMID:29303160

A MODELING AND SIMULATION LANGUAGE FOR BIOLOGICAL CELLS WITH COUPLED MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES.

PubMed

Somogyi, Endre; Glazier, James A

2017-04-01

Biological cells are the prototypical example of active matter. Cells sense and respond to mechanical, chemical and electrical environmental stimuli with a range of behaviors, including dynamic changes in morphology and mechanical properties, chemical uptake and secretion, cell differentiation, proliferation, death, and migration. Modeling and simulation of such dynamic phenomena poses a number of computational challenges. A modeling language describing cellular dynamics must naturally represent complex intra and extra-cellular spatial structures and coupled mechanical, chemical and electrical processes. Domain experts will find a modeling language most useful when it is based on concepts, terms and principles native to the problem domain. A compiler must then be able to generate an executable model from this physically motivated description. Finally, an executable model must efficiently calculate the time evolution of such dynamic and inhomogeneous phenomena. We present a spatial hybrid systems modeling language, compiler and mesh-free Lagrangian based simulation engine which will enable domain experts to define models using natural, biologically motivated constructs and to simulate time evolution of coupled cellular, mechanical and chemical processes acting on a time varying number of cells and their environment.

Functional Network Dynamics of the Language System

PubMed Central

Chai, Lucy R.; Mattar, Marcelo G.; Blank, Idan Asher; Fedorenko, Evelina; Bassett, Danielle S.

2016-01-01

During linguistic processing, a set of brain regions on the lateral surfaces of the left frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices exhibit robust responses. These areas display highly correlated activity while a subject rests or performs a naturalistic language comprehension task, suggesting that they form an integrated functional system. Evidence suggests that this system is spatially and functionally distinct from other systems that support high-level cognition in humans. Yet, how different regions within this system might be recruited dynamically during task performance is not well understood. Here we use network methods, applied to fMRI data collected from 22 human subjects performing a language comprehension task, to reveal the dynamic nature of the language system. We observe the presence of a stable core of brain regions, predominantly located in the left hemisphere, that consistently coactivate with one another. We also observe the presence of a more flexible periphery of brain regions, predominantly located in the right hemisphere, that coactivate with different regions at different times. However, the language functional ROIs in the angular gyrus and the anterior temporal lobe were notable exceptions to this trend. By highlighting the temporal dimension of language processing, these results suggest a trade-off between a region's specialization and its capacity for flexible network reconfiguration. PMID:27550868

Integrating language models into classifiers for BCI communication: a review.

PubMed

Speier, W; Arnold, C; Pouratian, N

2016-06-01

The present review systematically examines the integration of language models to improve classifier performance in brain-computer interface (BCI) communication systems. The domain of natural language has been studied extensively in linguistics and has been used in the natural language processing field in applications including information extraction, machine translation, and speech recognition. While these methods have been used for years in traditional augmentative and assistive communication devices, information about the output domain has largely been ignored in BCI communication systems. Over the last few years, BCI communication systems have started to leverage this information through the inclusion of language models. Although this movement began only recently, studies have already shown the potential of language integration in BCI communication and it has become a growing field in BCI research. BCI communication systems using language models in their classifiers have progressed down several parallel paths, including: word completion; signal classification; integration of process models; dynamic stopping; unsupervised learning; error correction; and evaluation. Each of these methods have shown significant progress, but have largely been addressed separately. Combining these methods could use the full potential of language model, yielding further performance improvements. This integration should be a priority as the field works to create a BCI system that meets the needs of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis population.

Understanding Patchy Landscape Dynamics: Towards a Landscape Language

PubMed Central

Gaucherel, Cédric; Boudon, Frédéric; Houet, Thomas; Castets, Mathieu; Godin, Christophe

2012-01-01

Patchy landscapes driven by human decisions and/or natural forces are still a challenge to be understood and modelled. No attempt has been made up to now to describe them by a coherent framework and to formalize landscape changing rules. Overcoming this lacuna was our first objective here, and this was largely based on the notion of Rewriting Systems, also called Formal Grammars. We used complicated scenarios of agricultural dynamics to model landscapes and to write their corresponding driving rule equations. Our second objective was to illustrate the relevance of this landscape language concept for landscape modelling through various grassland managements, with the final aim to assess their respective impacts on biological conservation. For this purpose, we made the assumptions that a higher grassland appearance frequency and higher land cover connectivity are favourable to species conservation. Ecological results revealed that dairy and beef livestock production systems are more favourable to wild species than is hog farming, although in different ways. Methodological results allowed us to efficiently model and formalize these landscape dynamics. This study demonstrates the applicability of the Rewriting System framework to the modelling of agricultural landscapes and, hopefully, to other patchy landscapes. The newly defined grammar is able to explain changes that are neither necessarily local nor Markovian, and opens a way to analytical modelling of landscape dynamics. PMID:23049935

The Case for Dynamic Assessment in Speech and Language Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hasson, Natalie

2007-01-01

This paper highlights the appeal of dynamic assessment (DA) for speech and language therapists (SLTs), and describes the usefulness of various DA models and methods. It describes the background to DA, and the uses to which DA has been put, by educational psychologists in the UK, and by SLTs in the USA. The research and development of methods of DA…

Functional Network Dynamics of the Language System.

PubMed

Chai, Lucy R; Mattar, Marcelo G; Blank, Idan Asher; Fedorenko, Evelina; Bassett, Danielle S

2016-10-17

During linguistic processing, a set of brain regions on the lateral surfaces of the left frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices exhibit robust responses. These areas display highly correlated activity while a subject rests or performs a naturalistic language comprehension task, suggesting that they form an integrated functional system. Evidence suggests that this system is spatially and functionally distinct from other systems that support high-level cognition in humans. Yet, how different regions within this system might be recruited dynamically during task performance is not well understood. Here we use network methods, applied to fMRI data collected from 22 human subjects performing a language comprehension task, to reveal the dynamic nature of the language system. We observe the presence of a stable core of brain regions, predominantly located in the left hemisphere, that consistently coactivate with one another. We also observe the presence of a more flexible periphery of brain regions, predominantly located in the right hemisphere, that coactivate with different regions at different times. However, the language functional ROIs in the angular gyrus and the anterior temporal lobe were notable exceptions to this trend. By highlighting the temporal dimension of language processing, these results suggest a trade-off between a region's specialization and its capacity for flexible network reconfiguration. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Vocal Development as a Guide to Modeling the Evolution of Language.

PubMed

Oller, D Kimbrough; Griebel, Ulrike; Warlaumont, Anne S

2016-04-01

Modeling of evolution and development of language has principally utilized mature units of spoken language, phonemes and words, as both targets and inputs. This approach cannot address the earliest phases of development because young infants are unable to produce such language features. We argue that units of early vocal development-protophones and their primitive illocutionary/perlocutionary forces-should be targeted in evolutionary modeling because they suggest likely units of hominin vocalization/communication shortly after the split from the chimpanzee/bonobo lineage, and because early development of spontaneous vocal capability is a logically necessary step toward vocal language, a root capability without which other crucial steps toward vocal language capability are impossible. Modeling of language evolution/development must account for dynamic change in early communicative units of form/function across time. We argue for interactive contributions of sender/infants and receiver/caregivers in a feedback loop involving both development and evolution and propose to begin computational modeling at the hominin break from the primate communicative background. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Lexical Activation in Bilinguals' Speech Production Is Dynamic: How Language Ambiguous Words Can Affect Cross-Language Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hermans, Daan; Ormel, E.; van Besselaar, Ria; van Hell, Janet

2011-01-01

Is the bilingual language production system a dynamic system that can operate in different language activation states? Three experiments investigated to what extent cross-language phonological co-activation effects in language production are sensitive to the composition of the stimulus list. L1 Dutch-L2 English bilinguals decided whether or not a…

Environmental Factors Affecting Computer Assisted Language Learning Success: A Complex Dynamic Systems Conceptual Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marek, Michael W.; Wu, Wen-Chi Vivian

2014-01-01

This conceptual, interdisciplinary inquiry explores Complex Dynamic Systems as the concept relates to the internal and external environmental factors affecting computer assisted language learning (CALL). Based on the results obtained by de Rosnay ["World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution", 67(4/5), 304-315 (2011)], who observed…

Dynamic Modelling Of A SCARA Robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turiel, J. Perez; Calleja, R. Grossi; Diez, V. Gutierrez

1987-10-01

This paper describes a method for modelling industrial robots that considers dynamic approach to manipulation systems motion generation, obtaining the complete dynamic model for the mechanic part of the robot and taking into account the dynamic effect of actuators acting at the joints. For a four degree of freedom SCARA robot we obtain the dynamic model for the basic (minimal) configuration, that is, the three degrees of freedom that allow us to place the robot end effector in a desired point, using the Lagrange Method to obtain the dynamic equations in matrix form. The manipulator is considered to be a set of rigid bodies inter-connected by joints in the form of simple kinematic pairs. Then, the state space model is obtained for the actuators that move the robot joints, uniting the models of the single actuators, that is, two DC permanent magnet servomotors and an electrohydraulic actuator. Finally, using a computer simulation program written in FORTRAN language, we can compute the matrices of the complete model.

Integrating language models into classifiers for BCI communication: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Speier, W.; Arnold, C.; Pouratian, N.

2016-06-01

Objective. The present review systematically examines the integration of language models to improve classifier performance in brain-computer interface (BCI) communication systems. Approach. The domain of natural language has been studied extensively in linguistics and has been used in the natural language processing field in applications including information extraction, machine translation, and speech recognition. While these methods have been used for years in traditional augmentative and assistive communication devices, information about the output domain has largely been ignored in BCI communication systems. Over the last few years, BCI communication systems have started to leverage this information through the inclusion of language models. Main results. Although this movement began only recently, studies have already shown the potential of language integration in BCI communication and it has become a growing field in BCI research. BCI communication systems using language models in their classifiers have progressed down several parallel paths, including: word completion; signal classification; integration of process models; dynamic stopping; unsupervised learning; error correction; and evaluation. Significance. Each of these methods have shown significant progress, but have largely been addressed separately. Combining these methods could use the full potential of language model, yielding further performance improvements. This integration should be a priority as the field works to create a BCI system that meets the needs of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis population.

A re-examination of neural basis of language processing: proposal of a dynamic hodotopical model from data provided by brain stimulation mapping during picture naming.

PubMed

Duffau, Hugues; Moritz-Gasser, Sylvie; Mandonnet, Emmanuel

2014-04-01

From recent findings provided by brain stimulation mapping during picture naming, we re-examine the neural basis of language. We studied structural-functional relationships by correlating the types of language disturbances generated by stimulation in awake patients, mimicking a transient virtual lesion both at cortical and subcortical levels (white matter and deep grey nuclei), with the anatomical location of the stimulation probe. We propose a hodotopical (delocalized) and dynamic model of language processing, which challenges the traditional modular and serial view. According to this model, following the visual input, the language network is organized in parallel, segregated (even if interconnected) large-scale cortico-subcortical sub-networks underlying semantic, phonological and syntactic processing. Our model offers several advantages (i) it explains double dissociations during stimulation (comprehension versus naming disorders, semantic versus phonemic paraphasias, syntactic versus naming disturbances, plurimodal judgment versus naming disorders); (ii) it takes into account the cortical and subcortical anatomic constraints; (iii) it explains the possible recovery of aphasia following a lesion within the "classical" language areas; (iv) it establishes links with a model executive functions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A meta-model for computer executable dynamic clinical safety checklists.

PubMed

Nan, Shan; Van Gorp, Pieter; Lu, Xudong; Kaymak, Uzay; Korsten, Hendrikus; Vdovjak, Richard; Duan, Huilong

2017-12-12

Safety checklist is a type of cognitive tool enforcing short term memory of medical workers with the purpose of reducing medical errors caused by overlook and ignorance. To facilitate the daily use of safety checklists, computerized systems embedded in the clinical workflow and adapted to patient-context are increasingly developed. However, the current hard-coded approach of implementing checklists in these systems increase the cognitive efforts of clinical experts and coding efforts for informaticists. This is due to the lack of a formal representation format that is both understandable by clinical experts and executable by computer programs. We developed a dynamic checklist meta-model with a three-step approach. Dynamic checklist modeling requirements were extracted by performing a domain analysis. Then, existing modeling approaches and tools were investigated with the purpose of reusing these languages. Finally, the meta-model was developed by eliciting domain concepts and their hierarchies. The feasibility of using the meta-model was validated by two case studies. The meta-model was mapped to specific modeling languages according to the requirements of hospitals. Using the proposed meta-model, a comprehensive coronary artery bypass graft peri-operative checklist set and a percutaneous coronary intervention peri-operative checklist set have been developed in a Dutch hospital and a Chinese hospital, respectively. The result shows that it is feasible to use the meta-model to facilitate the modeling and execution of dynamic checklists. We proposed a novel meta-model for the dynamic checklist with the purpose of facilitating creating dynamic checklists. The meta-model is a framework of reusing existing modeling languages and tools to model dynamic checklists. The feasibility of using the meta-model is validated by implementing a use case in the system.

Cortical subnetwork dynamics during human language tasks.

PubMed

Collard, Maxwell J; Fifer, Matthew S; Benz, Heather L; McMullen, David P; Wang, Yujing; Milsap, Griffin W; Korzeniewska, Anna; Crone, Nathan E

2016-07-15

Language tasks require the coordinated activation of multiple subnetworks-groups of related cortical interactions involved in specific components of task processing. Although electrocorticography (ECoG) has sufficient temporal and spatial resolution to capture the dynamics of event-related interactions between cortical sites, it is difficult to decompose these complex spatiotemporal patterns into functionally discrete subnetworks without explicit knowledge of each subnetwork's timing. We hypothesized that subnetworks corresponding to distinct components of task-related processing could be identified as groups of interactions with co-varying strengths. In this study, five subjects implanted with ECoG grids over language areas performed word repetition and picture naming. We estimated the interaction strength between each pair of electrodes during each task using a time-varying dynamic Bayesian network (tvDBN) model constructed from the power of high gamma (70-110Hz) activity, a surrogate for population firing rates. We then reduced the dimensionality of this model using principal component analysis (PCA) to identify groups of interactions with co-varying strengths, which we term functional network components (FNCs). This data-driven technique estimates both the weight of each interaction's contribution to a particular subnetwork, and the temporal profile of each subnetwork's activation during the task. We found FNCs with temporal and anatomical features consistent with articulatory preparation in both tasks, and with auditory and visual processing in the word repetition and picture naming tasks, respectively. These FNCs were highly consistent between subjects with similar electrode placement, and were robust enough to be characterized in single trials. Furthermore, the interaction patterns uncovered by FNC analysis correlated well with recent literature suggesting important functional-anatomical distinctions between processing external and self-produced speech. Our

Graphical modeling and query language for hospitals.

PubMed

Barzdins, Janis; Barzdins, Juris; Rencis, Edgars; Sostaks, Agris

2013-01-01

So far there has been little evidence that implementation of the health information technologies (HIT) is leading to health care cost savings. One of the reasons for this lack of impact by the HIT likely lies in the complexity of the business process ownership in the hospitals. The goal of our research is to develop a business model-based method for hospital use which would allow doctors to retrieve directly the ad-hoc information from various hospital databases. We have developed a special domain-specific process modelling language called the MedMod. Formally, we define the MedMod language as a profile on UML Class diagrams, but we also demonstrate it on examples, where we explain the semantics of all its elements informally. Moreover, we have developed the Process Query Language (PQL) that is based on MedMod process definition language. The purpose of PQL is to allow a doctor querying (filtering) runtime data of hospital's processes described using MedMod. The MedMod language tries to overcome deficiencies in existing process modeling languages, allowing to specify the loosely-defined sequence of the steps to be performed in the clinical process. The main advantages of PQL are in two main areas - usability and efficiency. They are: 1) the view on data through "glasses" of familiar process, 2) the simple and easy-to-perceive means of setting filtering conditions require no more expertise than using spreadsheet applications, 3) the dynamic response to each step in construction of the complete query that shortens the learning curve greatly and reduces the error rate, and 4) the selected means of filtering and data retrieving allows to execute queries in O(n) time regarding the size of the dataset. We are about to continue developing this project with three further steps. First, we are planning to develop user-friendly graphical editors for the MedMod process modeling and query languages. The second step is to do evaluation of usability the proposed language and tool

A contrastive view of Irish language dynamics.

PubMed

Giollagáin, Conchúr O

2004-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of the linguistic anthropology which underpins the language dynamics of two Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas, Ros Muc in Conamara, Co. Galway and Ráth Cairn in Co. Meath. This research highlights what could be considered a socio-linguistic paradox: the community (Ráth Cairn) which engages more vigorously in language maintenance endeavors, and exhibits a greater awareness of language policy and of linguistic ideology among members of the community, fares less favorably in socio-linguistic terms to the contrasting community (Ros Muc) which has to endure a more challenging socio-economic climate than that of Ráth Cairn. The relative socio-economic success of the Ráth Cairn community appears to be masking a greater malaise of socio-cultural fragility and language endangerment. In contrast, the language obsolescence issues faced by the Ros Muc community, though superficially not as severe, are enmeshed in what would be considered more pressing issues of socio-economic marginalization.

Dynamical Integration of Language and Behavior in a Recurrent Neural Network for Human-Robot Interaction.

PubMed

Yamada, Tatsuro; Murata, Shingo; Arie, Hiroaki; Ogata, Tetsuya

2016-01-01

To work cooperatively with humans by using language, robots must not only acquire a mapping between language and their behavior but also autonomously utilize the mapping in appropriate contexts of interactive tasks online. To this end, we propose a novel learning method linking language to robot behavior by means of a recurrent neural network. In this method, the network learns from correct examples of the imposed task that are given not as explicitly separated sets of language and behavior but as sequential data constructed from the actual temporal flow of the task. By doing this, the internal dynamics of the network models both language-behavior relationships and the temporal patterns of interaction. Here, "internal dynamics" refers to the time development of the system defined on the fixed-dimensional space of the internal states of the context layer. Thus, in the execution phase, by constantly representing where in the interaction context it is as its current state, the network autonomously switches between recognition and generation phases without any explicit signs and utilizes the acquired mapping in appropriate contexts. To evaluate our method, we conducted an experiment in which a robot generates appropriate behavior responding to a human's linguistic instruction. After learning, the network actually formed the attractor structure representing both language-behavior relationships and the task's temporal pattern in its internal dynamics. In the dynamics, language-behavior mapping was achieved by the branching structure. Repetition of human's instruction and robot's behavioral response was represented as the cyclic structure, and besides, waiting to a subsequent instruction was represented as the fixed-point attractor. Thanks to this structure, the robot was able to interact online with a human concerning the given task by autonomously switching phases.

Tinamit: Making coupled system dynamics models accessible to stakeholders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malard, Julien; Inam Baig, Azhar; Rojas Díaz, Marcela; Hassanzadeh, Elmira; Adamowski, Jan; Tuy, Héctor; Melgar-Quiñonez, Hugo

2017-04-01

Model coupling is increasingly used as a method of combining the best of two models when representing socio-environmental systems, though barriers to successful model adoption by stakeholders are particularly present with the use of coupled models, due to their high complexity and typically low implementation flexibility. Coupled system dynamics - physically-based modelling is a promising method to improve stakeholder participation in environmental modelling while retaining a high level of complexity for physical process representation, as the system dynamics components are readily understandable and can be built by stakeholders themselves. However, this method is not without limitations in practice, including 1) inflexible and complicated coupling methods, 2) difficult model maintenance after the end of the project, and 3) a wide variety of end-user cultures and languages. We have developed the open-source Python-language software tool Tinamit to overcome some of these limitations to the adoption of stakeholder-based coupled system dynamics - physically-based modelling. The software is unique in 1) its inclusion of both a graphical user interface (GUI) and a library of available commands (API) that allow users with little or no coding abilities to rapidly, effectively, and flexibly couple models, 2) its multilingual support for the GUI, allowing users to couple models in their preferred language (and to add new languages as necessary for their community work), and 3) its modular structure allowing for very easy model coupling and modification without the direct use of code, and to which programming-savvy users can easily add support for new types of physically-based models. We discuss how the use of Tinamit for model coupling can greatly increase the accessibility of coupled models to stakeholders, using an example of a stakeholder-built system dynamics model of soil salinity issues in Pakistan coupled with the physically-based soil salinity and water flow model

Combat Simulation Using Breach Computer Language

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-09-01

simulation and weapon system analysis computer language Two types of models were constructed: a stochastic duel and a dynamic engagement model The... duel model validates the BREACH approach by comparing results with mathematical solutions. The dynamic model shows the capability of the BREACH...BREACH 2 Background 2 The Language 3 Static Duel 4 Background and Methodology 4 Validation 5 Results 8 Tank Duel Simulation 8 Dynamic Assault Model

Modeling the emergence of contact languages.

PubMed

Tria, Francesca; Servedio, Vito D P; Mufwene, Salikoko S; Loreto, Vittorio

2015-01-01

Contact languages are born out of the non-trivial interaction of two (or more) parent languages. Nowadays, the enhanced possibility of mobility and communication allows for a strong mixing of languages and cultures, thus raising the issue of whether there are any pure languages or cultures that are unaffected by contact with others. As with bacteria or viruses in biological evolution, the evolution of languages is marked by horizontal transmission; but to date no reliable quantitative tools to investigate these phenomena have been available. An interesting and well documented example of contact language is the emergence of creole languages, which originated in the contacts of European colonists and slaves during the 17th and 18th centuries in exogenous plantation colonies of especially the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Here, we focus on the emergence of creole languages to demonstrate a dynamical process that mimics the process of creole formation in American and Caribbean plantation ecologies. Inspired by the Naming Game (NG), our modeling scheme incorporates demographic information about the colonial population in the framework of a non-trivial interaction network including three populations: Europeans, Mulattos/Creoles, and Bozal slaves. We show how this sole information makes it possible to discriminate territories that produced modern creoles from those that did not, with a surprising accuracy. The generality of our approach provides valuable insights for further studies on the emergence of languages in contact ecologies as well as to test specific hypotheses about the peopling and the population structures of the relevant territories. We submit that these tools could be relevant to addressing problems related to contact phenomena in many cultural domains: e.g., emergence of dialects, language competition and hybridization, globalization phenomena.

Modeling the Emergence of Contact Languages

PubMed Central

Tria, Francesca; Servedio, Vito D.P.; Mufwene, Salikoko S.; Loreto, Vittorio

2015-01-01

Contact languages are born out of the non-trivial interaction of two (or more) parent languages. Nowadays, the enhanced possibility of mobility and communication allows for a strong mixing of languages and cultures, thus raising the issue of whether there are any pure languages or cultures that are unaffected by contact with others. As with bacteria or viruses in biological evolution, the evolution of languages is marked by horizontal transmission; but to date no reliable quantitative tools to investigate these phenomena have been available. An interesting and well documented example of contact language is the emergence of creole languages, which originated in the contacts of European colonists and slaves during the 17th and 18th centuries in exogenous plantation colonies of especially the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Here, we focus on the emergence of creole languages to demonstrate a dynamical process that mimics the process of creole formation in American and Caribbean plantation ecologies. Inspired by the Naming Game (NG), our modeling scheme incorporates demographic information about the colonial population in the framework of a non-trivial interaction network including three populations: Europeans, Mulattos/Creoles, and Bozal slaves. We show how this sole information makes it possible to discriminate territories that produced modern creoles from those that did not, with a surprising accuracy. The generality of our approach provides valuable insights for further studies on the emergence of languages in contact ecologies as well as to test specific hypotheses about the peopling and the population structures of the relevant territories. We submit that these tools could be relevant to addressing problems related to contact phenomena in many cultural domains: e.g., emergence of dialects, language competition and hybridization, globalization phenomena. PMID:25875371

Language shift, bilingualism and the future of Britain's Celtic languages

PubMed Central

Kandler, Anne; Unger, Roman; Steele, James

2010-01-01

‘Language shift’ is the process whereby members of a community in which more than one language is spoken abandon their original vernacular language in favour of another. The historical shifts to English by Celtic language speakers of Britain and Ireland are particularly well-studied examples for which good census data exist for the most recent 100–120 years in many areas where Celtic languages were once the prevailing vernaculars. We model the dynamics of language shift as a competition process in which the numbers of speakers of each language (both monolingual and bilingual) vary as a function both of internal recruitment (as the net outcome of birth, death, immigration and emigration rates of native speakers), and of gains and losses owing to language shift. We examine two models: a basic model in which bilingualism is simply the transitional state for households moving between alternative monolingual states, and a diglossia model in which there is an additional demand for the endangered language as the preferred medium of communication in some restricted sociolinguistic domain, superimposed on the basic shift dynamics. Fitting our models to census data, we successfully reproduce the demographic trajectories of both languages over the past century. We estimate the rates of recruitment of new Scottish Gaelic speakers that would be required each year (for instance, through school education) to counteract the ‘natural wastage’ as households with one or more Gaelic speakers fail to transmit the language to the next generation informally, for different rates of loss during informal intergenerational transmission. PMID:21041210

Language shift, bilingualism and the future of Britain's Celtic languages.

PubMed

Kandler, Anne; Unger, Roman; Steele, James

2010-12-12

'Language shift' is the process whereby members of a community in which more than one language is spoken abandon their original vernacular language in favour of another. The historical shifts to English by Celtic language speakers of Britain and Ireland are particularly well-studied examples for which good census data exist for the most recent 100-120 years in many areas where Celtic languages were once the prevailing vernaculars. We model the dynamics of language shift as a competition process in which the numbers of speakers of each language (both monolingual and bilingual) vary as a function both of internal recruitment (as the net outcome of birth, death, immigration and emigration rates of native speakers), and of gains and losses owing to language shift. We examine two models: a basic model in which bilingualism is simply the transitional state for households moving between alternative monolingual states, and a diglossia model in which there is an additional demand for the endangered language as the preferred medium of communication in some restricted sociolinguistic domain, superimposed on the basic shift dynamics. Fitting our models to census data, we successfully reproduce the demographic trajectories of both languages over the past century. We estimate the rates of recruitment of new Scottish Gaelic speakers that would be required each year (for instance, through school education) to counteract the 'natural wastage' as households with one or more Gaelic speakers fail to transmit the language to the next generation informally, for different rates of loss during informal intergenerational transmission.

Extending network approach to language dynamics and human cognition. Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by Cong and Liu

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gong, Tao; Shuai, Lan; Wu, Yicheng

2014-12-01

By analyzing complex networks constructed from authentic language data, Cong and Liu [1] advance linguistics research into the big data era. The network approach has revealed many intrinsic generalities and crucial differences at both the macro and micro scales between human languages. The axiom behind this research is that language is a complex adaptive system [2]. Although many lexical, semantic, or syntactic features have been discovered by means of analyzing the static and dynamic linguistic networks of world languages, available network-based language studies have not explicitly addressed the evolutionary dynamics of language systems and the correlations between language and human cognition. This commentary aims to provide some insights on how to use the network approach to study these issues.

Colloquium: Hierarchy of scales in language dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blythe, Richard A.

2015-11-01

Methods and insights from statistical physics are finding an increasing variety of applications where one seeks to understand the emergent properties of a complex interacting system. One such area concerns the dynamics of language at a variety of levels of description, from the behaviour of individual agents learning simple artificial languages from each other, up to changes in the structure of languages shared by large groups of speakers over historical timescales. In this Colloquium, we survey a hierarchy of scales at which language and linguistic behaviour can be described, along with the main progress in understanding that has been made at each of them - much of which has come from the statistical physics community. We argue that future developments may arise by linking the different levels of the hierarchy together in a more coherent fashion, in particular where this allows more effective use of rich empirical data sets.

Requirements for Medical Modeling Languages

PubMed Central

van der Maas, Arnoud A.F.; Ter Hofstede, Arthur H.M.; Ten Hoopen, A. Johannes

2001-01-01

Objective: The development of tailor-made domain-specific modeling languages is sometimes desirable in medical informatics. Naturally, the development of such languages should be guided. The purpose of this article is to introduce a set of requirements for such languages and show their application in analyzing and comparing existing modeling languages. Design: The requirements arise from the practical experience of the authors and others in the development of modeling languages in both general informatics and medical informatics. The requirements initially emerged from the analysis of information modeling techniques. The requirements are designed to be orthogonal, i.e., one requirement can be violated without violation of the others. Results: The proposed requirements for any modeling language are that it be “formal” with regard to syntax and semantics, “conceptual,” “expressive,” “comprehensible,” “suitable,” and “executable.” The requirements are illustrated using both the medical logic modules of the Arden Syntax as a running example and selected examples from other modeling languages. Conclusion: Activity diagrams of the Unified Modeling Language, task structures for work flows, and Petri nets are discussed with regard to the list of requirements, and various tradeoffs are thus made explicit. It is concluded that this set of requirements has the potential to play a vital role in both the evaluation of existing domain-specific languages and the development of new ones. PMID:11230383

Language Multiplicity and Dynamism: Emergent Bilinguals Taking Ownership of Language Use in a Hybrid Curricular Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martínez-Álvarez, Patricia

2017-01-01

This study explores the impact of hybrid instructional spaces on the purposeful and expansive use of translanguaging practices. Utilizing technology, the study explores the role of multimodality in bilinguals' language multiplicity and dynamism. The research addresses: (a) how do emergent bilinguals in dual language programs deploy their full…

Dynamics of Language Contact in China: Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Variation in Yunnan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Katie B.

2017-01-01

The study of language contact epitomizes the dynamics of language as a system of human communication. The competing linguistic forces at work when speakers of different language varieties come into contact can be narrowed down to two basic concepts--convergence and divergence. Looking at linguistic areas using a macro approach, languages in…

Disrupted dynamic network reconfiguration of the language system in temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

He, Xiaosong; Bassett, Danielle S; Chaitanya, Ganne; Sperling, Michael R; Kozlowski, Lauren; Tracy, Joseph I

2018-05-01

Temporal lobe epilepsy tends to reshape the language system causing maladaptive reorganization that can be characterized by task-based functional MRI, and eventually can contribute to surgical decision making processes. However, the dynamic interacting nature of the brain as a complex system is often neglected, with many studies treating the language system as a static monolithic structure. Here, we demonstrate that as a specialized and integrated system, the language network is inherently dynamic, characterized by rich patterns of regional interactions, whose transient dynamics are disrupted in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Specifically, we applied tools from dynamic network neuroscience to functional MRI data collected from 50 temporal lobe epilepsy patients and 30 matched healthy controls during performance of a verbal fluency task, as well as during rest. By assigning 16 language-related regions into four subsystems (i.e. bilateral frontal and temporal), we observed regional specialization in both the probability of transient interactions and the frequency of such changes, in both healthy controls and patients during task performance but not rest. Furthermore, we found that both left and right temporal lobe epilepsy patients displayed reduced interactions within the left frontal 'core' subsystem compared to the healthy controls, while left temporal lobe epilepsy patients were unique in showing enhanced interactions between the left frontal 'core' and the right temporal subsystems. Also, both patient groups displayed reduced flexibility in the transient interactions of the left temporal and right frontal subsystems, which formed the 'periphery' of the language network. Importantly, such group differences were again evident only during task condition. Lastly, through random forest regression, we showed that dynamic reconfiguration of the language system tracks individual differences in verbal fluency with superior prediction accuracy compared to

Component Models for Semantic Web Languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henriksson, Jakob; Aßmann, Uwe

Intelligent applications and agents on the Semantic Web typically need to be specified with, or interact with specifications written in, many different kinds of formal languages. Such languages include ontology languages, data and metadata query languages, as well as transformation languages. As learnt from years of experience in development of complex software systems, languages need to support some form of component-based development. Components enable higher software quality, better understanding and reusability of already developed artifacts. Any component approach contains an underlying component model, a description detailing what valid components are and how components can interact. With the multitude of languages developed for the Semantic Web, what are their underlying component models? Do we need to develop one for each language, or is a more general and reusable approach achievable? We present a language-driven component model specification approach. This means that a component model can be (automatically) generated from a given base language (actually, its specification, e.g. its grammar). As a consequence, we can provide components for different languages and simplify the development of software artifacts used on the Semantic Web.

Caring in the Dynamics of Design and Languaging: Exploring Second Language Learning in 3D Virtual Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Dongping

2012-01-01

This study provides concrete evidence of ecological, dialogical views of languaging within the dynamics of coordination and cooperation in a virtual world. Beginning level second language learners of Chinese engaged in cooperative activities designed to provide them opportunities to refine linguistic actions by way of caring for others, for the…

The Sociolinguistic Model in Speech and Language Pathology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolfram, Walt

A discussion of the role of sociolinguistics in the treatment of communication disorders focuses on issues related to dialect and language variation. It begins with an examination of linguistic diversity and dynamic description of language, reporting on a study of speech and language pathologists' judgments of sentences in African American…

Language of Physics, Language of Math: Disciplinary Culture and Dynamic Epistemology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Redish, Edward F.; Kuo, Eric

2015-07-01

Mathematics is a critical part of much scientific research. Physics in particular weaves math extensively into its instruction beginning in high school. Despite much research on the learning of both physics and math, the problem of how to effectively include math in physics in a way that reaches most students remains unsolved. In this paper, we suggest that a fundamental issue has received insufficient exploration: the fact that in science, we don't just use math, we make meaning with it in a different way than mathematicians do. In this reflective essay, we explore math as a language and consider the language of math in physics through the lens of cognitive linguistics. We begin by offering a number of examples that show how the use of math in physics differs from the use of math as typically found in math classes. We then explore basic concepts in cognitive semantics to show how humans make meaning with language in general. The critical elements are the roles of embodied cognition and interpretation in context. Then, we show how a theoretical framework commonly used in physics education research, resources, is coherent with and extends the ideas of cognitive semantics by connecting embodiment to phenomenological primitives and contextual interpretation to the dynamics of meaning-making with conceptual resources, epistemological resources, and affect. We present these ideas with illustrative case studies of students working on physics problems with math and demonstrate the dynamical nature of student reasoning with math in physics. We conclude with some thoughts about the implications for instruction.

Incorporating advanced language models into the P300 speller using particle filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Speier, W.; Arnold, C. W.; Deshpande, A.; Knall, J.; Pouratian, N.

2015-08-01

Objective. The P300 speller is a common brain-computer interface (BCI) application designed to communicate language by detecting event related potentials in a subject’s electroencephalogram signal. Information about the structure of natural language can be valuable for BCI communication, but attempts to use this information have thus far been limited to rudimentary n-gram models. While more sophisticated language models are prevalent in natural language processing literature, current BCI analysis methods based on dynamic programming cannot handle their complexity. Approach. Sampling methods can overcome this complexity by estimating the posterior distribution without searching the entire state space of the model. In this study, we implement sequential importance resampling, a commonly used particle filtering (PF) algorithm, to integrate a probabilistic automaton language model. Main result. This method was first evaluated offline on a dataset of 15 healthy subjects, which showed significant increases in speed and accuracy when compared to standard classification methods as well as a recently published approach using a hidden Markov model (HMM). An online pilot study verified these results as the average speed and accuracy achieved using the PF method was significantly higher than that using the HMM method. Significance. These findings strongly support the integration of domain-specific knowledge into BCI classification to improve system performance.

Dynamics of hemispheric dominance for language assessed by magnetoencephalographic imaging.

PubMed

Findlay, Anne M; Ambrose, Josiah B; Cahn-Weiner, Deborah A; Houde, John F; Honma, Susanne; Hinkley, Leighton B N; Berger, Mitchel S; Nagarajan, Srikantan S; Kirsch, Heidi E

2012-05-01

The goal of the current study was to examine the dynamics of language lateralization using magnetoencephalographic (MEG) imaging, to determine the sensitivity and specificity of MEG imaging, and to determine whether MEG imaging can become a viable alternative to the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP), the current gold standard for preoperative language lateralization in neurosurgical candidates. MEG was recorded during an auditory verb generation task and imaging analysis of oscillatory activity was initially performed in 21 subjects with epilepsy, brain tumor, or arteriovenous malformation who had undergone IAP and MEG. Time windows and brain regions of interest that best discriminated between IAP-determined left or right dominance for language were identified. Parameters derived in the retrospective analysis were applied to a prospective cohort of 14 patients and healthy controls. Power decreases in the beta frequency band were consistently observed following auditory stimulation in inferior frontal, superior temporal, and parietal cortices; similar power decreases were also seen in inferior frontal cortex prior to and during overt verb generation. Language lateralization was clearly observed to be a dynamic process that is bilateral for several hundred milliseconds during periods of auditory perception and overt speech production. Correlation with the IAP was seen in 13 of 14 (93%) prospective patients, with the test demonstrating a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 92%. Our results demonstrate excellent correlation between MEG imaging findings and the IAP for language lateralization, and provide new insights into the spatiotemporal dynamics of cortical speech processing. Copyright © 2012 American Neurological Association.

Adopting a Cultural Portfolio Project in Teaching German as a Foreign Language: Language Teacher Cognition as a Dynamic System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feryok, Anne; Oranje, Jo

2015-01-01

Intercultural language teaching and learning has increasingly been adopted in state school systems, yet studies have shown that language teachers struggle to include it in their practice. The aim of this study is to use dynamic systems theory to examine how a German as a foreign language teacher in a New Zealand secondary school adopted a project…

Language competition in a population of migrating agents.

PubMed

Lipowska, Dorota; Lipowski, Adam

2017-05-01

Influencing various aspects of human activity, migration is associated also with language formation. To examine the mutual interaction of these processes, we study a Naming Game with migrating agents. The dynamics of the model leads to formation of low-mobility clusters, which turns out to break the symmetry of the model: although the Naming Game remains symmetric, low-mobility languages are favored. High-mobility languages are gradually eliminated from the system, and the dynamics of language formation considerably slows down. Our model is too simple to explain in detail language competition of migrating human communities, but it certainly shows that languages of settlers are favored over nomadic ones.

Language competition in a population of migrating agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lipowska, Dorota; Lipowski, Adam

2017-05-01

Influencing various aspects of human activity, migration is associated also with language formation. To examine the mutual interaction of these processes, we study a Naming Game with migrating agents. The dynamics of the model leads to formation of low-mobility clusters, which turns out to break the symmetry of the model: although the Naming Game remains symmetric, low-mobility languages are favored. High-mobility languages are gradually eliminated from the system, and the dynamics of language formation considerably slows down. Our model is too simple to explain in detail language competition of migrating human communities, but it certainly shows that languages of settlers are favored over nomadic ones.

Models with Men and Women: Representing Gender in Dynamic Modeling of Social Systems.

PubMed

Palmer, Erika; Wilson, Benedicte

2018-04-01

Dynamic engineering models have yet to be evaluated in the context of feminist engineering ethics. Decision-making concerning gender in dynamic modeling design is a gender and ethical issue that is important to address regardless of the system in which the dynamic modeling is applied. There are many dynamic modeling tools that operationally include the female population, however, there is an important distinction between females and women; it is the difference between biological sex and the social construct of gender, which is fluid and changes over time and geography. The ethical oversight in failing to represent or misrepresenting gender in model design when it is relevant to the model purpose can have implications for model validity and policy model development. This paper highlights this gender issue in the context of feminist engineering ethics using a dynamic population model. Women are often represented in this type of model only in their biological capacity, while lacking their gender identity. This illustrative example also highlights how language, including the naming of variables and communication with decision-makers, plays a role in this gender issue.

Dynamic Adaptation in Child-Adult Language Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Dijk, Marijn; van Geert, Paul; Korecky-Kröll, Katharina; Maillochon, Isabelle; Laaha, Sabine; Dressler, Wolfgang U.; Bassano, Dominique

2013-01-01

When speaking to young children, adults adapt their language to that of the child. In this article, we suggest that this child-directed speech (CDS) is the result of a transactional process of dynamic adaptation between the child and the adult. The study compares developmental trajectories of three children to those of the CDS of their caregivers.…

Mirror neurons, language, and embodied cognition.

PubMed

Perlovsky, Leonid I; Ilin, Roman

2013-05-01

Basic mechanisms of the mind, cognition, language, its semantic and emotional mechanisms are modeled using dynamic logic (DL). This cognitively and mathematically motivated model leads to a dual-model hypothesis of language and cognition. The paper emphasizes that abstract cognition cannot evolve without language. The developed model is consistent with a joint emergence of language and cognition from a mirror neuron system. The dual language-cognition model leads to the dual mental hierarchy. The nature of cognition embodiment in the hierarchy is analyzed. Future theoretical and experimental research is discussed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Use of statecharts in the modelling of dynamic behaviour in the ATLAS DAQ prototype-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croll, P.; Duval, P.-Y.; Jones, R.; Kolos, S.; Sari, R. F.; Wheeler, S.

1998-08-01

Many applications within the ATLAS DAQ prototype-1 system have complicated dynamic behaviour which can be successfully modelled in terms of states and transitions between states. Previously, state diagrams implemented as finite-state machines have been used. Although effective, they become ungainly as system size increases. Harel statecharts address this problem by implementing additional features such as hierarchy and concurrency. The CHSM object-oriented language system is freeware which implements Harel statecharts as concurrent, hierarchical, finite-state machines (CHSMs). An evaluation of this language system by the ATLAS DAQ group has shown it to be suitable for describing the dynamic behaviour of typical DAQ applications. The language is currently being used to model the dynamic behaviour of the prototype-1 run-control system. The design is specified by means of a CHSM description file, and C++ code is obtained by running the CHSM compiler on the file. In parallel with the modelling work, a code generator has been developed which translates statecharts, drawn using the StP CASE tool, into the CHSM language. C++ code, describing the dynamic behaviour of the run-control system, has been successfully generated directly from StP statecharts using the CHSM generator and compiler. The validity of the design was tested using the simulation features of the Statemate CASE tool.

A simple branching model that reproduces language family and language population distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwämmle, Veit; de Oliveira, Paulo Murilo Castro

2009-07-01

Human history leaves fingerprints in human languages. Little is known about language evolution and its study is of great importance. Here we construct a simple stochastic model and compare its results to statistical data of real languages. The model is based on the recent finding that language changes occur independently of the population size. We find agreement with the data additionally assuming that languages may be distinguished by having at least one among a finite, small number of different features. This finite set is also used in order to define the distance between two languages, similarly to linguistics tradition since Swadesh.

Introduction: Second Language Development as a Dynamic Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Bot, Kees

2008-01-01

In this contribution, some of the basic characteristics of complex adaptive systems, collectively labeled Dynamic Systems Theory (DST), are discussed. Such systems are self-organizing, dependent on initial conditions, sometimes chaotic, and they show emergent properties. The focus in DST is on development over time. Language is seen as a dynamic…

Parents' and Speech and Language Therapists' Explanatory Models of Language Development, Language Delay and Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall, Julie; Goldbart, Juliet; Phillips, Julie

2007-01-01

Background: Parental and speech and language therapist (SLT) explanatory models may affect engagement with speech and language therapy, but there has been dearth of research in this area. This study investigated parents' and SLTs' views about language development, delay and intervention in pre-school children with language delay. Aims: The aims…

The proper treatment of language acquisition and change in a population setting.

PubMed

Niyogi, Partha; Berwick, Robert C

2009-06-23

Language acquisition maps linguistic experience, primary linguistic data (PLD), onto linguistic knowledge, a grammar. Classically, computational models of language acquisition assume a single target grammar and one PLD source, the central question being whether the target grammar can be acquired from the PLD. However, real-world learners confront populations with variation, i.e., multiple target grammars and PLDs. Removing this idealization has inspired a new class of population-based language acquisition models. This paper contrasts 2 such models. In the first, iterated learning (IL), each learner receives PLD from one target grammar but different learners can have different targets. In the second, social learning (SL), each learner receives PLD from possibly multiple targets, e.g., from 2 parents. We demonstrate that these 2 models have radically different evolutionary consequences. The IL model is dynamically deficient in 2 key respects. First, the IL model admits only linear dynamics and so cannot describe phase transitions, attested rapid changes in languages over time. Second, the IL model cannot properly describe the stability of languages over time. In contrast, the SL model leads to nonlinear dynamics, bifurcations, and possibly multiple equilibria and so suffices to model both the case of stable language populations, mixtures of more than 1 language, as well as rapid language change. The 2 models also make distinct, empirically testable predictions about language change. Using historical data, we show that the SL model more faithfully replicates the dynamics of the evolution of Middle English.

A framework for modeling and optimizing dynamic systems under uncertainty

DOE PAGES

Nicholson, Bethany; Siirola, John

2017-11-11

Algebraic modeling languages (AMLs) have drastically simplified the implementation of algebraic optimization problems. However, there are still many classes of optimization problems that are not easily represented in most AMLs. These classes of problems are typically reformulated before implementation, which requires significant effort and time from the modeler and obscures the original problem structure or context. In this work we demonstrate how the Pyomo AML can be used to represent complex optimization problems using high-level modeling constructs. We focus on the operation of dynamic systems under uncertainty and demonstrate the combination of Pyomo extensions for dynamic optimization and stochastic programming.more » We use a dynamic semibatch reactor model and a large-scale bubbling fluidized bed adsorber model as test cases.« less

A framework for modeling and optimizing dynamic systems under uncertainty

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nicholson, Bethany; Siirola, John

Algebraic modeling languages (AMLs) have drastically simplified the implementation of algebraic optimization problems. However, there are still many classes of optimization problems that are not easily represented in most AMLs. These classes of problems are typically reformulated before implementation, which requires significant effort and time from the modeler and obscures the original problem structure or context. In this work we demonstrate how the Pyomo AML can be used to represent complex optimization problems using high-level modeling constructs. We focus on the operation of dynamic systems under uncertainty and demonstrate the combination of Pyomo extensions for dynamic optimization and stochastic programming.more » We use a dynamic semibatch reactor model and a large-scale bubbling fluidized bed adsorber model as test cases.« less

The Speech Community in Evolutionary Language Dynamics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blythe, Richard A.; Croft, William A.

2009-01-01

Language is a complex adaptive system: Speakers are agents who interact with each other, and their past and current interactions feed into speakers' future behavior in complex ways. In this article, we describe the social cognitive linguistic basis for this analysis of language and a mathematical model developed in collaboration between…

Portable Just-in-Time Specialization of Dynamically Typed Scripting Languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Kevin; McCandless, Jason; Gregg, David

In this paper, we present a portable approach to JIT compilation for dynamically typed scripting languages. At runtime we generate ANSI C code and use the system's native C compiler to compile this code. The C compiler runs on a separate thread to the interpreter allowing program execution to continue during JIT compilation. Dynamic languages have variables which may change type at any point in execution. Our interpreter profiles variable types at both whole method and partial method granularity. When a frequently executed region of code is discovered, the compilation thread generates a specialized version of the region based on the profiled types. In this paper, we evaluate the level of instruction specialization achieved by our profiling scheme as well as the overall performance of our JIT.

Language acquisition is model-based rather than model-free.

PubMed

Wang, Felix Hao; Mintz, Toben H

2016-01-01

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) propose that learning language is learning to process language. However, we believe that the general-purpose prediction mechanism they propose is insufficient to account for many phenomena in language acquisition. We argue from theoretical considerations and empirical evidence that many acquisition tasks are model-based, and that different acquisition tasks require different, specialized models.

Self-organizing map models of language acquisition

PubMed Central

Li, Ping; Zhao, Xiaowei

2013-01-01

Connectionist models have had a profound impact on theories of language. While most early models were inspired by the classic parallel distributed processing architecture, recent models of language have explored various other types of models, including self-organizing models for language acquisition. In this paper, we aim at providing a review of the latter type of models, and highlight a number of simulation experiments that we have conducted based on these models. We show that self-organizing connectionist models can provide significant insights into long-standing debates in both monolingual and bilingual language development. We suggest future directions in which these models can be extended, to better connect with behavioral and neural data, and to make clear predictions in testing relevant psycholinguistic theories. PMID:24312061

Multicriteria framework for selecting a process modelling language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scanavachi Moreira Campos, Ana Carolina; Teixeira de Almeida, Adiel

2016-01-01

The choice of process modelling language can affect business process management (BPM) since each modelling language shows different features of a given process and may limit the ways in which a process can be described and analysed. However, choosing the appropriate modelling language for process modelling has become a difficult task because of the availability of a large number modelling languages and also due to the lack of guidelines on evaluating, and comparing languages so as to assist in selecting the most appropriate one. This paper proposes a framework for selecting a modelling language in accordance with the purposes of modelling. This framework is based on the semiotic quality framework (SEQUAL) for evaluating process modelling languages and a multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) approach in order to select the most appropriate language for BPM. This study does not attempt to set out new forms of assessment and evaluation criteria, but does attempt to demonstrate how two existing approaches can be combined so as to solve the problem of selection of modelling language. The framework is described in this paper and then demonstrated by means of an example. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of using SEQUAL and MCDA in an integrated manner are discussed.

Dynamic assessment of narrative ability in English accurately identifies language impairment in English language learners.

PubMed

Peña, Elizabeth D; Gillam, Ronald B; Bedore, Lisa M

2014-12-01

To assess the identification accuracy of dynamic assessment (DA) of narrative ability in English for children learning English as a 2nd language. A DA task was administered to 54 children: 18 Spanish-English-speaking children with language impairment (LI); 18 age-, sex-, IQ- and language experience-matched typical control children; and an additional 18 age- and language experience-matched comparison children. A variety of quantitative and qualitative measures were collected in the pretest phase, the mediation phase, and the posttest phase of the study. Exploratory discriminant analysis was used to determine the set of measures that best differentiated among this group of children with and without LI. A combination of examiner ratings of modifiability (compliance, metacognition, and task orientation), DA story scores (setting, dialogue, and complexity of vocabulary), and ungrammaticality (derived from the posttest narrative sample) classified children with 80.6% to 97.2% accuracy. DA conducted in English provides a systematic means for measuring learning processes and learning outcomes, resulting in a clinically useful procedure for identifying LIs in bilingual children who are in the process of learning English as a second language.

Women's Language Model: A Proposal.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dumas, Bethany K.

It is possible to think of women's language in terms of the model implied by the following statement. Insofar as native speakers of English are concerned, the language of women in America has four sets of components: those shared with the language of men in America; those shared, in varying proportions, with other women living in patriarchies;…

The Dynamics of Language Program Direction. Issues in Language Program Direction: A Series of Annual Volumes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benseler, David P., Ed.

This collection papers begins with "Introduction: The Dynamics of Successful Leadership in Foreign Language Programs," then features the following: "The Undergraduate Program: Autonomy and Empowerment" (Wilga M. Rivers); "TA Supervision: Are We Preparing a Future Professoriate?" (Cathy Pons); "Applied Scholarship…

Kinect-based sign language recognition of static and dynamic hand movements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalawis, Rando C.; Olayao, Kenneth Deniel R.; Ramos, Evan Geoffrey I.; Samonte, Mary Jane C.

2017-02-01

A different approach of sign language recognition of static and dynamic hand movements was developed in this study using normalized correlation algorithm. The goal of this research was to translate fingerspelling sign language into text using MATLAB and Microsoft Kinect. Digital input image captured by Kinect devices are matched from template samples stored in a database. This Human Computer Interaction (HCI) prototype was developed to help people with communication disability to express their thoughts with ease. Frame segmentation and feature extraction was used to give meaning to the captured images. Sequential and random testing was used to test both static and dynamic fingerspelling gestures. The researchers explained some factors they encountered causing some misclassification of signs.

Object-oriented biomedical system modelling--the language.

PubMed

Hakman, M; Groth, T

1999-11-01

The paper describes a new object-oriented biomedical continuous system modelling language (OOBSML). It is fully object-oriented and supports model inheritance, encapsulation, and model component instantiation and behaviour polymorphism. Besides the traditional differential and algebraic equation expressions the language includes also formal expressions for documenting models and defining model quantity types and quantity units. It supports explicit definition of model input-, output- and state quantities, model components and component connections. The OOBSML model compiler produces self-contained, independent, executable model components that can be instantiated and used within other OOBSML models and/or stored within model and model component libraries. In this way complex models can be structured as multilevel, multi-component model hierarchies. Technically the model components produced by the OOBSML compiler are executable computer code objects based on distributed object and object request broker technology. This paper includes both the language tutorial and the formal language syntax and semantic description.

Student Modeling and Ab Initio Language Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heift, Trude; Schulze, Mathias

2003-01-01

Provides examples of student modeling techniques that have been employed in computer-assisted language learning over the past decade. Describes two systems for learning German: "German Tutor" and "Geroline." Shows how a student model can support computerized adaptive language testing for diagnostic purposes in a Web-based language learning…

Language Learning Strategies and Its Training Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jing

2010-01-01

This paper summarizes and reviews the literature regarding language learning strategies and it's training model, pointing out the significance of language learning strategies to EFL learners and an applicable and effective language learning strategies training model, which is beneficial both to EFL learners and instructors, is badly needed.

A Dynamic Ensemble for Second Language Research: Putting Complexity Theory into Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hiver, Phil; Al-Hoorie, Ali H.

2016-01-01

In this article, we introduce a template of methodological considerations, termed "the dynamic ensemble," for scholars doing or evaluating empirical second language development (SLD) research within a complexity/dynamic systems theory (CDST) framework. Given that CDST principles have yielded significant insight into SLD and have become…

Influence of periodic external fields in multiagent models with language dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palombi, Filippo; Ferriani, Stefano; Toti, Simona

2017-12-01

We investigate large-scale effects induced by external fields, phenomenologically interpreted as mass media, in multiagent models evolving with the microscopic dynamics of the binary naming game. In particular, we show that a single external field, broadcasting information at regular time intervals, can reverse the majority opinion of the population, provided the frequency and the effectiveness of the sent messages lie above well-defined thresholds. We study the phase structure of the model in the mean field approximation and in numerical simulations with several network topologies. We also investigate the influence on the agent dynamics of two competing external fields, periodically broadcasting different messages. In finite regions of the parameter space we observe periodic equilibrium states in which the average opinion densities are reversed with respect to naive expectations. Such equilibria occur in two cases: (i) when the frequencies of the competing messages are different but close to each other; (ii) when the frequencies are equal and the relative time shift of the messages does not exceed half a period. We interpret the observed phenomena as a result of the interplay between the external fields and the internal dynamics of the agents and conclude that, depending on the model parameters, the naming game is consistent with scenarios of first- or second-mover advantage (to borrow an expression from the jargon of business strategy).

Language Networks as Models of Cognition: Understanding Cognition through Language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beckage, Nicole M.; Colunga, Eliana

Language is inherently cognitive and distinctly human. Separating the object of language from the human mind that processes and creates language fails to capture the full language system. Linguistics traditionally has focused on the study of language as a static representation, removed from the human mind. Network analysis has traditionally been focused on the properties and structure that emerge from network representations. Both disciplines could gain from looking at language as a cognitive process. In contrast, psycholinguistic research has focused on the process of language without committing to a representation. However, by considering language networks as approximations of the cognitive system we can take the strength of each of these approaches to study human performance and cognition as related to language. This paper reviews research showcasing the contributions of network science to the study of language. Specifically, we focus on the interplay of cognition and language as captured by a network representation. To this end, we review different types of language network representations before considering the influence of global level network features. We continue by considering human performance in relation to network structure and conclude with theoretical network models that offer potential and testable explanations of cognitive and linguistic phenomena.

Quantifying the driving factors for language shift in a bilingual region

PubMed Central

Prochazka, Katharina; Vogl, Gero

2017-01-01

Many of the world’s around 6,000 languages are in danger of disappearing as people give up use of a minority language in favor of the majority language in a process called language shift. Language shift can be monitored on a large scale through the use of mathematical models by way of differential equations, for example, reaction–diffusion equations. Here, we use a different approach: we propose a model for language dynamics based on the principles of cellular automata/agent-based modeling and combine it with very detailed empirical data. Our model makes it possible to follow language dynamics over space and time, whereas existing models based on differential equations average over space and consequently provide no information on local changes in language use. Additionally, cellular automata models can be used even in cases where models based on differential equations are not applicable, for example, in situations where one language has become dispersed and retreated to language islands. Using data from a bilingual region in Austria, we show that the most important factor in determining the spread and retreat of a language is the interaction with speakers of the same language. External factors like bilingual schools or parish language have only a minor influence. PMID:28298530

Quantifying the driving factors for language shift in a bilingual region.

PubMed

Prochazka, Katharina; Vogl, Gero

2017-04-25

Many of the world's around 6,000 languages are in danger of disappearing as people give up use of a minority language in favor of the majority language in a process called language shift. Language shift can be monitored on a large scale through the use of mathematical models by way of differential equations, for example, reaction-diffusion equations. Here, we use a different approach: we propose a model for language dynamics based on the principles of cellular automata/agent-based modeling and combine it with very detailed empirical data. Our model makes it possible to follow language dynamics over space and time, whereas existing models based on differential equations average over space and consequently provide no information on local changes in language use. Additionally, cellular automata models can be used even in cases where models based on differential equations are not applicable, for example, in situations where one language has become dispersed and retreated to language islands. Using data from a bilingual region in Austria, we show that the most important factor in determining the spread and retreat of a language is the interaction with speakers of the same language. External factors like bilingual schools or parish language have only a minor influence.

The Gender-Linked Language Effect: An Empirical Test of a General Process Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulac, Anthony; Giles, Howard; Bradac, James J.; Palomares, Nicholas A.

2013-01-01

The gender-linked language effect (GLLE) is a phenomenon in which transcripts of female communicators are rated higher on Socio-Intellectual Status and Aesthetic Quality and male communicators are rated higher on Dynamism. This study proposed and tested a new general process model explanation for the GLLE, a central mediating element of which…

Adaptive Modeling Language and Its Derivatives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chemaly, Adel

2006-01-01

Adaptive Modeling Language (AML) is the underlying language of an object-oriented, multidisciplinary, knowledge-based engineering framework. AML offers an advanced modeling paradigm with an open architecture, enabling the automation of the entire product development cycle, integrating product configuration, design, analysis, visualization, production planning, inspection, and cost estimation.

Simulating Cross-Language Priming with a Dynamic Computational Model of the Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Xiaowei; Li, Ping

2013-01-01

Cross-language priming is a widely used experimental paradigm in psycholinguistics to study how bilinguals' two languages are represented and organized. Researchers have observed a number of interesting patterns from the priming effects of both translation equivalents and semantically related word pairs across languages. In this study, we…

Colorado Model Content Standards: Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colorado State Dept. of Education, Denver.

The model course content standards for foreign language instruction in Colorado's public schools, K-12, provide guidelines, not curriculum, for school districts to design language programs. An introductory section presents some basic considerations in program design. The two general standards for foreign language performance are that: (1) students…

TOWARDS A MULTI-SCALE AGENT-BASED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHODOLOGY

PubMed Central

Somogyi, Endre; Hagar, Amit; Glazier, James A.

2017-01-01

Living tissues are dynamic, heterogeneous compositions of objects, including molecules, cells and extra-cellular materials, which interact via chemical, mechanical and electrical process and reorganize via transformation, birth, death and migration processes. Current programming language have difficulty describing the dynamics of tissues because: 1: Dynamic sets of objects participate simultaneously in multiple processes, 2: Processes may be either continuous or discrete, and their activity may be conditional, 3: Objects and processes form complex, heterogeneous relationships and structures, 4: Objects and processes may be hierarchically composed, 5: Processes may create, destroy and transform objects and processes. Some modeling languages support these concepts, but most cannot translate models into executable simulations. We present a new hybrid executable modeling language paradigm, the Continuous Concurrent Object Process Methodology (CCOPM) which naturally expresses tissue models, enabling users to visually create agent-based models of tissues, and also allows computer simulation of these models. PMID:29282379

TOWARDS A MULTI-SCALE AGENT-BASED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHODOLOGY.

PubMed

Somogyi, Endre; Hagar, Amit; Glazier, James A

2016-12-01

Living tissues are dynamic, heterogeneous compositions of objects , including molecules, cells and extra-cellular materials, which interact via chemical, mechanical and electrical process and reorganize via transformation, birth, death and migration processes . Current programming language have difficulty describing the dynamics of tissues because: 1: Dynamic sets of objects participate simultaneously in multiple processes, 2: Processes may be either continuous or discrete, and their activity may be conditional, 3: Objects and processes form complex, heterogeneous relationships and structures, 4: Objects and processes may be hierarchically composed, 5: Processes may create, destroy and transform objects and processes. Some modeling languages support these concepts, but most cannot translate models into executable simulations. We present a new hybrid executable modeling language paradigm, the Continuous Concurrent Object Process Methodology ( CCOPM ) which naturally expresses tissue models, enabling users to visually create agent-based models of tissues, and also allows computer simulation of these models.

Language Models and the Teaching of English Language to Secondary School Students in Cameroon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ntongieh, Njwe Amah Eyovi

2016-01-01

This paper investigates Language models with an emphasis on an appraisal of the Competence Based Language Teaching Model (CBLT) employed in the teaching and learning of English language in Cameroon. Research endeavours at various levels combined with cumulative deficiencies experienced over the years have propelled educational policy makers to…

A Model of Motivation for Extensive Reading in Japanese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Burgh-Hirabe, Ryoko; Feryok, Ann

2013-01-01

Numerous studies have reported that extensive reading (ER) has a positive influence on affect. Recent studies suggest that motivation for ER changes. This is in line with recent developments in second language (L2) motivation research that have highlighted the complex and dynamic nature of L2 motivation. This study presents a model of complex and…

Integrating dynamic stopping, transfer learning and language models in an adaptive zero-training ERP speller.

PubMed

Kindermans, Pieter-Jan; Tangermann, Michael; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Schrauwen, Benjamin

2014-06-01

Most BCIs have to undergo a calibration session in which data is recorded to train decoders with machine learning. Only recently zero-training methods have become a subject of study. This work proposes a probabilistic framework for BCI applications which exploit event-related potentials (ERPs). For the example of a visual P300 speller we show how the framework harvests the structure suitable to solve the decoding task by (a) transfer learning, (b) unsupervised adaptation, (c) language model and (d) dynamic stopping. A simulation study compares the proposed probabilistic zero framework (using transfer learning and task structure) to a state-of-the-art supervised model on n = 22 subjects. The individual influence of the involved components (a)-(d) are investigated. Without any need for a calibration session, the probabilistic zero-training framework with inter-subject transfer learning shows excellent performance--competitive to a state-of-the-art supervised method using calibration. Its decoding quality is carried mainly by the effect of transfer learning in combination with continuous unsupervised adaptation. A high-performing zero-training BCI is within reach for one of the most popular BCI paradigms: ERP spelling. Recording calibration data for a supervised BCI would require valuable time which is lost for spelling. The time spent on calibration would allow a novel user to spell 29 symbols with our unsupervised approach. It could be of use for various clinical and non-clinical ERP-applications of BCI.

Integrating dynamic stopping, transfer learning and language models in an adaptive zero-training ERP speller

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kindermans, Pieter-Jan; Tangermann, Michael; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Schrauwen, Benjamin

2014-06-01

Objective. Most BCIs have to undergo a calibration session in which data is recorded to train decoders with machine learning. Only recently zero-training methods have become a subject of study. This work proposes a probabilistic framework for BCI applications which exploit event-related potentials (ERPs). For the example of a visual P300 speller we show how the framework harvests the structure suitable to solve the decoding task by (a) transfer learning, (b) unsupervised adaptation, (c) language model and (d) dynamic stopping. Approach. A simulation study compares the proposed probabilistic zero framework (using transfer learning and task structure) to a state-of-the-art supervised model on n = 22 subjects. The individual influence of the involved components (a)-(d) are investigated. Main results. Without any need for a calibration session, the probabilistic zero-training framework with inter-subject transfer learning shows excellent performance—competitive to a state-of-the-art supervised method using calibration. Its decoding quality is carried mainly by the effect of transfer learning in combination with continuous unsupervised adaptation. Significance. A high-performing zero-training BCI is within reach for one of the most popular BCI paradigms: ERP spelling. Recording calibration data for a supervised BCI would require valuable time which is lost for spelling. The time spent on calibration would allow a novel user to spell 29 symbols with our unsupervised approach. It could be of use for various clinical and non-clinical ERP-applications of BCI.

Language-Independent and Language-Specific Aspects of Early Literacy: An Evaluation of the Common Underlying Proficiency Model.

PubMed

Goodrich, J Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J

2017-08-01

According to the common underlying proficiency model (Cummins, 1981), as children acquire academic knowledge and skills in their first language, they also acquire language-independent information about those skills that can be applied when learning a second language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of the common underlying proficiency model for the early literacy skills of Spanish-speaking language-minority children using confirmatory factor analysis. Eight hundred fifty-eight Spanish-speaking language-minority preschoolers (mean age = 60.83 months, 50.2% female) participated in this study. Results indicated that bifactor models that consisted of language-independent as well as language-specific early literacy factors provided the best fits to the data for children's phonological awareness and print knowledge skills. Correlated factors models that only included skills specific to Spanish and English provided the best fits to the data for children's oral language skills. Children's language-independent early literacy skills were significantly related across constructs and to language-specific aspects of early literacy. Language-specific aspects of early literacy skills were significantly related within but not across languages. These findings suggest that language-minority preschoolers have a common underlying proficiency for code-related skills but not language-related skills that may allow them to transfer knowledge across languages.

Modeling biological pathway dynamics with timed automata.

PubMed

Schivo, Stefano; Scholma, Jetse; Wanders, Brend; Urquidi Camacho, Ricardo A; van der Vet, Paul E; Karperien, Marcel; Langerak, Rom; van de Pol, Jaco; Post, Janine N

2014-05-01

Living cells are constantly subjected to a plethora of environmental stimuli that require integration into an appropriate cellular response. This integration takes place through signal transduction events that form tightly interconnected networks. The understanding of these networks requires capturing their dynamics through computational support and models. ANIMO (analysis of Networks with Interactive Modeling) is a tool that enables the construction and exploration of executable models of biological networks, helping to derive hypotheses and to plan wet-lab experiments. The tool is based on the formalism of Timed Automata, which can be analyzed via the UPPAAL model checker. Thanks to Timed Automata, we can provide a formal semantics for the domain-specific language used to represent signaling networks. This enforces precision and uniformity in the definition of signaling pathways, contributing to the integration of isolated signaling events into complex network models. We propose an approach to discretization of reaction kinetics that allows us to efficiently use UPPAAL as the computational engine to explore the dynamic behavior of the network of interest. A user-friendly interface hides the use of Timed Automata from the user, while keeping the expressive power intact. Abstraction to single-parameter kinetics speeds up construction of models that remain faithful enough to provide meaningful insight. The resulting dynamic behavior of the network components is displayed graphically, allowing for an intuitive and interactive modeling experience.

Building social cognitive models of language change.

PubMed

Hruschka, Daniel J; Christiansen, Morten H; Blythe, Richard A; Croft, William; Heggarty, Paul; Mufwene, Salikoko S; Pierrehumbert, Janet B; Poplack, Shana

2009-11-01

Studies of language change have begun to contribute to answering several pressing questions in cognitive sciences, including the origins of human language capacity, the social construction of cognition and the mechanisms underlying culture change in general. Here, we describe recent advances within a new emerging framework for the study of language change, one that models such change as an evolutionary process among competing linguistic variants. We argue that a crucial and unifying element of this framework is the use of probabilistic, data-driven models both to infer change and to compare competing claims about social and cognitive influences on language change.

Mapping the Terrain of Homosexually-Themed Language

PubMed Central

McCormack, Mark

2011-01-01

In this article, I present a new model for understanding homosexually-themed language. By detailing how old conceptualizations of homophobic language no longer maintain heuristic utility in explaining the social dynamics of many sport and educational settings, I situate other conceptualizations of homosexually-themed language depending on the cultural context. I argue that whether language is considered homophobic, or whether it is better conceptualized as fag discourse, gay discourse or pro-gay language, is primarily dependent on the homohysteria of a setting. This model should enable scholars and educators to understand the operation of homosexually-themed language in society and properly evaluate the homophobia of a setting. PMID:21534076

Generating Systems Biology Markup Language Models from the Synthetic Biology Open Language.

PubMed

Roehner, Nicholas; Zhang, Zhen; Nguyen, Tramy; Myers, Chris J

2015-08-21

In the context of synthetic biology, model generation is the automated process of constructing biochemical models based on genetic designs. This paper discusses the use cases for model generation in genetic design automation (GDA) software tools and introduces the foundational concepts of standards and model annotation that make this process useful. Finally, this paper presents an implementation of model generation in the GDA software tool iBioSim and provides an example of generating a Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) model from a design of a 4-input AND sensor written in the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL).

Cross-language differences in the brain network subserving intelligible speech.

PubMed

Ge, Jianqiao; Peng, Gang; Lyu, Bingjiang; Wang, Yi; Zhuo, Yan; Niu, Zhendong; Tan, Li Hai; Leff, Alexander P; Gao, Jia-Hong

2015-03-10

How is language processed in the brain by native speakers of different languages? Is there one brain system for all languages or are different languages subserved by different brain systems? The first view emphasizes commonality, whereas the second emphasizes specificity. We investigated the cortical dynamics involved in processing two very diverse languages: a tonal language (Chinese) and a nontonal language (English). We used functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling analysis to compute and compare brain network models exhaustively with all possible connections among nodes of language regions in temporal and frontal cortex and found that the information flow from the posterior to anterior portions of the temporal cortex was commonly shared by Chinese and English speakers during speech comprehension, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus received neural signals from the left posterior portion of the temporal cortex in English speakers and from the bilateral anterior portion of the temporal cortex in Chinese speakers. Our results revealed that, although speech processing is largely carried out in the common left hemisphere classical language areas (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) and anterior temporal cortex, speech comprehension across different language groups depends on how these brain regions interact with each other. Moreover, the right anterior temporal cortex, which is crucial for tone processing, is equally important as its left homolog, the left anterior temporal cortex, in modulating the cortical dynamics in tone language comprehension. The current study pinpoints the importance of the bilateral anterior temporal cortex in language comprehension that is downplayed or even ignored by popular contemporary models of speech comprehension.

Cross-language differences in the brain network subserving intelligible speech

PubMed Central

Ge, Jianqiao; Peng, Gang; Lyu, Bingjiang; Wang, Yi; Zhuo, Yan; Niu, Zhendong; Tan, Li Hai; Leff, Alexander P.; Gao, Jia-Hong

2015-01-01

How is language processed in the brain by native speakers of different languages? Is there one brain system for all languages or are different languages subserved by different brain systems? The first view emphasizes commonality, whereas the second emphasizes specificity. We investigated the cortical dynamics involved in processing two very diverse languages: a tonal language (Chinese) and a nontonal language (English). We used functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling analysis to compute and compare brain network models exhaustively with all possible connections among nodes of language regions in temporal and frontal cortex and found that the information flow from the posterior to anterior portions of the temporal cortex was commonly shared by Chinese and English speakers during speech comprehension, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus received neural signals from the left posterior portion of the temporal cortex in English speakers and from the bilateral anterior portion of the temporal cortex in Chinese speakers. Our results revealed that, although speech processing is largely carried out in the common left hemisphere classical language areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) and anterior temporal cortex, speech comprehension across different language groups depends on how these brain regions interact with each other. Moreover, the right anterior temporal cortex, which is crucial for tone processing, is equally important as its left homolog, the left anterior temporal cortex, in modulating the cortical dynamics in tone language comprehension. The current study pinpoints the importance of the bilateral anterior temporal cortex in language comprehension that is downplayed or even ignored by popular contemporary models of speech comprehension. PMID:25713366

Understanding Language Learning: Review of the Application of the Interaction Model in Foreign Language Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, L. Quentin; Wu, Shuang

2014-01-01

Purpose: This paper examined the application of the input-interaction-output model in English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) learning environments with four specific questions: (1) How do the three components function in the model? (2) Does interaction in the foreign language classroom seem to be effective for foreign language acquisition? (3) What…

At the Interface: Dynamic Interactions of Explicit and Implicit Language Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.

2005-01-01

This paper considers how implicit and explicit knowledge are dissociable but cooperative. It reviews various psychological and neurobiological processes by which explicit knowledge of form-meaning associations impacts upon implicit language learning. The interface is dynamic: It happens transiently during conscious processing, but the influence…

Drawing Dynamic Geometry Figures Online with Natural Language for Junior High School Geometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Wing-Kwong; Yin, Sheng-Kai; Yang, Chang-Zhe

2012-01-01

This paper presents a tool for drawing dynamic geometric figures by understanding the texts of geometry problems. With the tool, teachers and students can construct dynamic geometric figures on a web page by inputting a geometry problem in natural language. First we need to build the knowledge base for understanding geometry problems. With the…

Modeling the language learning strategies and English language proficiency of pre-university students in UMS: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiram, J. J.; Sulaiman, J.; Swanto, S.; Din, W. A.

2015-10-01

This study aims to construct a mathematical model of the relationship between a student's Language Learning Strategy usage and English Language proficiency. Fifty-six pre-university students of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. A self-report questionnaire called the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning was administered to them to measure their language learning strategy preferences before they sat for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET), the results of which were utilised to measure their English language proficiency. We attempted the model assessment specific to Multiple Linear Regression Analysis subject to variable selection using Stepwise regression. We conducted various assessments to the model obtained, including the Global F-test, Root Mean Square Error and R-squared. The model obtained suggests that not all language learning strategies should be included in the model in an attempt to predict Language Proficiency.

Dynamic changes in network activations characterize early learning of a natural language.

PubMed

Plante, Elena; Patterson, Dianne; Dailey, Natalie S; Kyle, R Almyrde; Fridriksson, Julius

2014-09-01

Those who are initially exposed to an unfamiliar language have difficulty separating running speech into individual words, but over time will recognize both words and the grammatical structure of the language. Behavioral studies have used artificial languages to demonstrate that humans are sensitive to distributional information in language input, and can use this information to discover the structure of that language. This is done without direct instruction and learning occurs over the course of minutes rather than days or months. Moreover, learners may attend to different aspects of the language input as their own learning progresses. Here, we examine processing associated with the early stages of exposure to a natural language, using fMRI. Listeners were exposed to an unfamiliar language (Icelandic) while undergoing four consecutive fMRI scans. The Icelandic stimuli were constrained in ways known to produce rapid learning of aspects of language structure. After approximately 4 min of exposure to the Icelandic stimuli, participants began to differentiate between correct and incorrect sentences at above chance levels, with significant improvement between the first and last scan. An independent component analysis of the imaging data revealed four task-related components, two of which were associated with behavioral performance early in the experiment, and two with performance later in the experiment. This outcome suggests dynamic changes occur in the recruitment of neural resources even within the initial period of exposure to an unfamiliar natural language. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Topics in Modeling of Cochlear Dynamics: Computation, Response and Stability Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filo, Maurice G.

This thesis touches upon several topics in cochlear modeling. Throughout the literature, mathematical models of the cochlea vary according to the degree of biological realism to be incorporated. This thesis casts the cochlear model as a continuous space-time dynamical system using operator language. This framework encompasses a wider class of cochlear models and makes the dynamics more transparent and easier to analyze before applying any numerical method to discretize space. In fact, several numerical methods are investigated to study the computational efficiency of the finite dimensional realizations in space. Furthermore, we study the effects of the active gain perturbations on the stability of the linearized dynamics. The stability analysis is used to explain possible mechanisms underlying spontaneous otoacoustic emissions and tinnitus. Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is introduced as a useful tool to analyze the response of nonlinear cochlear models. Cochlear response features are illustrated using DMD which has the advantage of explicitly revealing the spatial modes of vibrations occurring in the Basilar Membrane (BM). Finally, we address the dynamic estimation problem of BM vibrations using Extended Kalman Filters (EKF). Due to the limitations of noninvasive sensing schemes, such algorithms are inevitable to estimate the dynamic behavior of a living cochlea.

A Neural Dynamic Model Generates Descriptions of Object-Oriented Actions.

PubMed

Richter, Mathis; Lins, Jonas; Schöner, Gregor

2017-01-01

Describing actions entails that relations between objects are discovered. A pervasively neural account of this process requires that fundamental problems are solved: the neural pointer problem, the binding problem, and the problem of generating discrete processing steps from time-continuous neural processes. We present a prototypical solution to these problems in a neural dynamic model that comprises dynamic neural fields holding representations close to sensorimotor surfaces as well as dynamic neural nodes holding discrete, language-like representations. Making the connection between these two types of representations enables the model to describe actions as well as to perceptually ground movement phrases-all based on real visual input. We demonstrate how the dynamic neural processes autonomously generate the processing steps required to describe or ground object-oriented actions. By solving the fundamental problems of neural pointing, binding, and emergent discrete processing, the model may be a first but critical step toward a systematic neural processing account of higher cognition. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society.

A Comparison and Evaluation of Real-Time Software Systems Modeling Languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Evensen, Kenneth D.; Weiss, Kathryn Anne

2010-01-01

A model-driven approach to real-time software systems development enables the conceptualization of software, fostering a more thorough understanding of its often complex architecture and behavior while promoting the documentation and analysis of concerns common to real-time embedded systems such as scheduling, resource allocation, and performance. Several modeling languages have been developed to assist in the model-driven software engineering effort for real-time systems, and these languages are beginning to gain traction with practitioners throughout the aerospace industry. This paper presents a survey of several real-time software system modeling languages, namely the Architectural Analysis and Design Language (AADL), the Unified Modeling Language (UML), Systems Modeling Language (SysML), the Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time Embedded Systems (MARTE) UML profile, and the AADL for UML profile. Each language has its advantages and disadvantages, and in order to adequately describe a real-time software system's architecture, a complementary use of multiple languages is almost certainly necessary. This paper aims to explore these languages in the context of understanding the value each brings to the model-driven software engineering effort and to determine if it is feasible and practical to combine aspects of the various modeling languages to achieve more complete coverage in architectural descriptions. To this end, each language is evaluated with respect to a set of criteria such as scope, formalisms, and architectural coverage. An example is used to help illustrate the capabilities of the various languages.

Integrative Motivation: Changes during a Year-Long Intermediate-Level Language Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, R. C.; Masgoret, A. M.; Tennant, J.; Mihic, L.

2004-01-01

The socioeducational model of second language acquisition postulates that language learning is a dynamic process in which affective variables influence language achievement and achievement and experiences in language learning can influence some affective variables. Five classes of variable are emphasized: integrativeness, attitudes toward the…

Learning bias, cultural evolution of language, and the biological evolution of the language faculty.

PubMed

Smith, Kenny

2011-04-01

The biases of individual language learners act to determine the learnability and cultural stability of languages: learners come to the language learning task with biases which make certain linguistic systems easier to acquire than others. These biases are repeatedly applied during the process of language transmission, and consequently should effect the types of languages we see in human populations. Understanding the cultural evolutionary consequences of particular learning biases is therefore central to understanding the link between language learning in individuals and language universals, common structural properties shared by all the world’s languages. This paper reviews a range of models and experimental studies which show that weak biases in individual learners can have strong effects on the structure of socially learned systems such as language, suggesting that strong universal tendencies in language structure do not require us to postulate strong underlying biases or constraints on language learning. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between learner biases and language design has implications for theories of the evolution of those learning biases: models of gene-culture coevolution suggest that, in situations where a cultural dynamic mediates between properties of individual learners and properties of language in this way, biological evolution is unlikely to lead to the emergence of strong constraints on learning.

Cognitive aging and hearing acuity: modeling spoken language comprehension.

PubMed

Wingfield, Arthur; Amichetti, Nicole M; Lash, Amanda

2015-01-01

The comprehension of spoken language has been characterized by a number of "local" theories that have focused on specific aspects of the task: models of word recognition, models of selective attention, accounts of thematic role assignment at the sentence level, and so forth. The ease of language understanding (ELU) model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) stands as one of the few attempts to offer a fully encompassing framework for language understanding. In this paper we discuss interactions between perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive factors in spoken language understanding. Central to our presentation is an examination of aspects of the ELU model that apply especially to spoken language comprehension in adult aging, where speed of processing, working memory capacity, and hearing acuity are often compromised. We discuss, in relation to the ELU model, conceptions of working memory and its capacity limitations, the use of linguistic context to aid in speech recognition and the importance of inhibitory control, and language comprehension at the sentence level. Throughout this paper we offer a constructive look at the ELU model; where it is strong and where there are gaps to be filled.

Multi-language naming game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Jianfeng; Lou, Yang; Chen, Guanrong; Tang, Wallace K. S.

2018-04-01

Naming game is a simulation-based experiment used to study the evolution of languages. The conventional naming game focuses on a single language. In this paper, a novel naming game model named multi-language naming game (MLNG) is proposed, where the agents are different-language speakers who cannot communicate with each other without a translator (interpreter) in between. The MLNG model is general, capable of managing k different languages with k ≥ 2. For illustration, the paper only discusses the MLNG with two different languages, and studies five representative network topologies, namely random-graph, WS small-world, NW small-world, scale-free, and random-triangle topologies. Simulation and analysis results both show that: 1) using the network features and based on the proportion of translators the probability of establishing a conversation between two or three agents can be theoretically estimated; 2) the relationship between the convergence speed and the proportion of translators has a power-law-like relation; 3) different agents require different memory sizes, thus a local memory allocation rule is recommended for saving memory resources. The new model and new findings should be useful for further studies of naming games and for better understanding of languages evolution from a dynamical network perspective.

A Multidimensional Curriculum Model for Heritage or International Language Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lazaruk, Wally

1993-01-01

Describes the Multidimension Curriculum Model for developing a language curriculum and suggests a generic approach to selecting and sequencing learning objectives. Alberta Education used this model to design a new French-as-a-Second-Language program. The experience/communication, culture, language, and general language components at the beginning,…

Dynamic Effects of Performance-Avoidance Goal Orientation on Student Achievement in Language and Mathematics.

PubMed

Stamovlasis, Dimitrios; Gonida, Sofia-Eleftheria N

2018-07-01

The present study used achievement goal theory (AGT) as a theoretical framework and examined the role of mastery and performance goals, both performance-approach and performance-avoidance, on school achieve-ment within the nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) perspective. A series of cusp catastrophe models were applied on students' achievement in a number of school subjects, such as mathematics and language for elementary school and algebra, geometry, ancient and modern Greek language for high school, using achievement goal orientations as control variables. The participants (N=224) were students attending fifth and eighth grade (aged 11 and 14, respectively) in public schools located in northern Greece. Cusp analysis based on the probability density function was carried out by two procedures, the maximum likelihood and the least squares. The results showed that performance-approach goals had no linear effect on achievement, while the cusp models implementing mastery goals as the asymmetry factor and performance-avoidance as the bifurcation, proved superior to their linear alternatives. The results of the study based on NDS support the multiple goal perspective within AGT. Theoretical issues, educational implications and future directions are discussed.

A Neurobehavioral Model of Flexible Spatial Language Behaviors

PubMed Central

Lipinski, John; Schneegans, Sebastian; Sandamirskaya, Yulia; Spencer, John P.; Schöner, Gregor

2012-01-01

We propose a neural dynamic model that specifies how low-level visual processes can be integrated with higher level cognition to achieve flexible spatial language behaviors. This model uses real-word visual input that is linked to relational spatial descriptions through a neural mechanism for reference frame transformations. We demonstrate that the system can extract spatial relations from visual scenes, select items based on relational spatial descriptions, and perform reference object selection in a single unified architecture. We further show that the performance of the system is consistent with behavioral data in humans by simulating results from 2 independent empirical studies, 1 spatial term rating task and 1 study of reference object selection behavior. The architecture we present thereby achieves a high degree of task flexibility under realistic stimulus conditions. At the same time, it also provides a detailed neural grounding for complex behavioral and cognitive processes. PMID:21517224

LEARNING SEMANTICS-ENHANCED LANGUAGE MODELS APPLIED TO UNSUEPRVISED WSD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

VERSPOOR, KARIN; LIN, SHOU-DE

An N-gram language model aims at capturing statistical syntactic word order information from corpora. Although the concept of language models has been applied extensively to handle a variety of NLP problems with reasonable success, the standard model does not incorporate semantic information, and consequently limits its applicability to semantic problems such as word sense disambiguation. We propose a framework that integrates semantic information into the language model schema, allowing a system to exploit both syntactic and semantic information to address NLP problems. Furthermore, acknowledging the limited availability of semantically annotated data, we discuss how the proposed model can be learnedmore » without annotated training examples. Finally, we report on a case study showing how the semantics-enhanced language model can be applied to unsupervised word sense disambiguation with promising results.« less

Spoken Language Processing Model: Bridging Auditory and Language Processing to Guide Assessment and Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medwetsky, Larry

2011-01-01

Purpose: This article outlines the author's conceptualization of the key mechanisms that are engaged in the processing of spoken language, referred to as the spoken language processing model. The act of processing what is heard is very complex and involves the successful intertwining of auditory, cognitive, and language mechanisms. Spoken language…

Aligning grammatical theories and language processing models.

PubMed

Lewis, Shevaun; Phillips, Colin

2015-02-01

We address two important questions about the relationship between theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics. First, do grammatical theories and language processing models describe separate cognitive systems, or are they accounts of different aspects of the same system? We argue that most evidence is consistent with the one-system view. Second, how should we relate grammatical theories and language processing models to each other?

Electrocortical Dynamics in Children with a Language-Learning Impairment Before and After Audiovisual Training.

PubMed

Heim, Sabine; Choudhury, Naseem; Benasich, April A

2016-05-01

Detecting and discriminating subtle and rapid sound changes in the speech environment is a fundamental prerequisite of language processing, and deficits in this ability have frequently been observed in individuals with language-learning impairments (LLI). One approach to studying associations between dysfunctional auditory dynamics and LLI, is to implement a training protocol tapping into this potential while quantifying pre- and post-intervention status. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are highly sensitive to the brain correlates of these dynamic changes and are therefore ideally suited for examining hypotheses regarding dysfunctional auditory processes. In this study, ERP measurements to rapid tone sequences (standard and deviant tone pairs) along with behavioral language testing were performed in 6- to 9-year-old LLI children (n = 21) before and after audiovisual training. A non-treatment group of children with typical language development (n = 12) was also assessed twice at a comparable time interval. The results indicated that the LLI group exhibited considerable gains on standardized measures of language. In terms of ERPs, we found evidence of changes in the LLI group specifically at the level of the P2 component, later than 250 ms after the onset of the second stimulus in the deviant tone pair. These changes suggested enhanced discrimination of deviant from standard tone sequences in widespread cortices, in LLI children after training.

Modelling Typical Online Language Learning Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montoro, Carlos; Hampel, Regine; Stickler, Ursula

2014-01-01

This article presents the methods and results of a four-year-long research project focusing on the language learning activity of individual learners using online tasks conducted at the University of Guanajuato (Mexico) in 2009-2013. An activity-theoretical model (Blin, 2010; Engeström, 1987) of the typical language learning activity was used to…

The Layer-Oriented Approach to Declarative Languages for Biological Modeling

PubMed Central

Raikov, Ivan; De Schutter, Erik

2012-01-01

We present a new approach to modeling languages for computational biology, which we call the layer-oriented approach. The approach stems from the observation that many diverse biological phenomena are described using a small set of mathematical formalisms (e.g. differential equations), while at the same time different domains and subdomains of computational biology require that models are structured according to the accepted terminology and classification of that domain. Our approach uses distinct semantic layers to represent the domain-specific biological concepts and the underlying mathematical formalisms. Additional functionality can be transparently added to the language by adding more layers. This approach is specifically concerned with declarative languages, and throughout the paper we note some of the limitations inherent to declarative approaches. The layer-oriented approach is a way to specify explicitly how high-level biological modeling concepts are mapped to a computational representation, while abstracting away details of particular programming languages and simulation environments. To illustrate this process, we define an example language for describing models of ionic currents, and use a general mathematical notation for semantic transformations to show how to generate model simulation code for various simulation environments. We use the example language to describe a Purkinje neuron model and demonstrate how the layer-oriented approach can be used for solving several practical issues of computational neuroscience model development. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the approach in comparison with other modeling language efforts in the domain of computational biology and outline some principles for extensible, flexible modeling language design. We conclude by describing in detail the semantic transformations defined for our language. PMID:22615554

The layer-oriented approach to declarative languages for biological modeling.

PubMed

Raikov, Ivan; De Schutter, Erik

2012-01-01

We present a new approach to modeling languages for computational biology, which we call the layer-oriented approach. The approach stems from the observation that many diverse biological phenomena are described using a small set of mathematical formalisms (e.g. differential equations), while at the same time different domains and subdomains of computational biology require that models are structured according to the accepted terminology and classification of that domain. Our approach uses distinct semantic layers to represent the domain-specific biological concepts and the underlying mathematical formalisms. Additional functionality can be transparently added to the language by adding more layers. This approach is specifically concerned with declarative languages, and throughout the paper we note some of the limitations inherent to declarative approaches. The layer-oriented approach is a way to specify explicitly how high-level biological modeling concepts are mapped to a computational representation, while abstracting away details of particular programming languages and simulation environments. To illustrate this process, we define an example language for describing models of ionic currents, and use a general mathematical notation for semantic transformations to show how to generate model simulation code for various simulation environments. We use the example language to describe a Purkinje neuron model and demonstrate how the layer-oriented approach can be used for solving several practical issues of computational neuroscience model development. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the approach in comparison with other modeling language efforts in the domain of computational biology and outline some principles for extensible, flexible modeling language design. We conclude by describing in detail the semantic transformations defined for our language.

The Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech*

PubMed Central

Marian, Viorica

2013-01-01

During speech comprehension, bilinguals co-activate both of their languages, resulting in cross-linguistic interaction at various levels of processing. This interaction has important consequences for both the structure of the language system and the mechanisms by which the system processes spoken language. Using computational modeling, we can examine how cross-linguistic interaction affects language processing in a controlled, simulated environment. Here we present a connectionist model of bilingual language processing, the Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech (BLINCS), wherein interconnected levels of processing are created using dynamic, self-organizing maps. BLINCS can account for a variety of psycholinguistic phenomena, including cross-linguistic interaction at and across multiple levels of processing, cognate facilitation effects, and audio-visual integration during speech comprehension. The model also provides a way to separate two languages without requiring a global language-identification system. We conclude that BLINCS serves as a promising new model of bilingual spoken language comprehension. PMID:24363602

Impulse processing: A dynamical systems model of incremental eye movements in the visual world paradigm

PubMed Central

Kukona, Anuenue; Tabor, Whitney

2011-01-01

The visual world paradigm presents listeners with a challenging problem: they must integrate two disparate signals, the spoken language and the visual context, in support of action (e.g., complex movements of the eyes across a scene). We present Impulse Processing, a dynamical systems approach to incremental eye movements in the visual world that suggests a framework for integrating language, vision, and action generally. Our approach assumes that impulses driven by the language and the visual context impinge minutely on a dynamical landscape of attractors corresponding to the potential eye-movement behaviors of the system. We test three unique predictions of our approach in an empirical study in the visual world paradigm, and describe an implementation in an artificial neural network. We discuss the Impulse Processing framework in relation to other models of the visual world paradigm. PMID:21609355

Group Dynamic Assessment in an Early Foreign Language Learning Program: Tracking Movement through the Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davin, Kristin Johnson

2011-01-01

Although researchers have begun to explore the implementation of dynamic assessment (DA) with foreign language learners, few of these studies have occurred in the language classroom. Whereas DA is typically implemented in dyads, promising research in the field of foreign language learning suggests that DA may promote development with groups of…

An amodal shared resource model of language-mediated visual attention

PubMed Central

Smith, Alastair C.; Monaghan, Padraic; Huettig, Falk

2013-01-01

Language-mediated visual attention describes the interaction of two fundamental components of the human cognitive system, language and vision. Within this paper we present an amodal shared resource model of language-mediated visual attention that offers a description of the information and processes involved in this complex multimodal behavior and a potential explanation for how this ability is acquired. We demonstrate that the model is not only sufficient to account for the experimental effects of Visual World Paradigm studies but also that these effects are emergent properties of the architecture of the model itself, rather than requiring separate information processing channels or modular processing systems. The model provides an explicit description of the connection between the modality-specific input from language and vision and the distribution of eye gaze in language-mediated visual attention. The paper concludes by discussing future applications for the model, specifically its potential for investigating the factors driving observed individual differences in language-mediated eye gaze. PMID:23966967

Improving Language Learning Strategies and Performance of Pre-Service Language Teachers through a CALLA-TBLT Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guapacha Chamorro, Maria Eugenia; Benavidez Paz, Luis Humberto

2017-01-01

This paper reports an action-research study on language learning strategies in tertiary education at a Colombian university. The study aimed at improving the English language performance and language learning strategies use of 33 first-year pre-service language teachers by combining elements from two models: the cognitive academic language…

Construction of language models for an handwritten mail reading system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morillot, Olivier; Likforman-Sulem, Laurence; Grosicki, Emmanuèle

2012-01-01

This paper presents a system for the recognition of unconstrained handwritten mails. The main part of this system is an HMM recognizer which uses trigraphs to model contextual information. This recognition system does not require any segmentation into words or characters and directly works at line level. To take into account linguistic information and enhance performance, a language model is introduced. This language model is based on bigrams and built from training document transcriptions only. Different experiments with various vocabulary sizes and language models have been conducted. Word Error Rate and Perplexity values are compared to show the interest of specific language models, fit to handwritten mail recognition task.

Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning Skills: Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapantzoglou, Maria; Restrepo, M. Adelaida; Thompson, Marilyn S.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Bilingual children are often diagnosed with language impairment, although they may simply have fewer opportunities to learn English than English-speaking monolingual children. This study examined whether dynamic assessment (DA) of word learning skills is an effective method for identifying bilingual children with primary language…

The Dynamic Nature of Motivation in Language Learning: A Classroom Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawlak, Miroslaw

2012-01-01

When we examine the empirical investigations of motivation in second and foreign language learning, even those drawing upon the latest theoretical paradigms, such as the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009), it becomes clear that many of them still fail to take account of its dynamic character and temporal variation. This may be surprising…

An abstract specification language for Markov reliability models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, R. W.

1985-01-01

Markov models can be used to compute the reliability of virtually any fault tolerant system. However, the process of delineating all of the states and transitions in a model of complex system can be devastatingly tedious and error-prone. An approach to this problem is presented utilizing an abstract model definition language. This high level language is described in a nonformal manner and illustrated by example.

An abstract language for specifying Markov reliability models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Ricky W.

1986-01-01

Markov models can be used to compute the reliability of virtually any fault tolerant system. However, the process of delineating all of the states and transitions in a model of complex system can be devastatingly tedious and error-prone. An approach to this problem is presented utilizing an abstract model definition language. This high level language is described in a nonformal manner and illustrated by example.

Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayley, Robert, Ed.; Schecter, Sandra R., Ed.

This collection of papers explores language socialization from very early childhood through adulthood. After "Introduction: Toward a Dynamic Model of Language Socialization" (Robert Bayley and Sandra R. Schecter), there are 16 papers in 4 parts. Part 1, "Language Socialization at Home," includes: (1) "Transforming…

MIST: An Open Source Environmental Modelling Programming Language Incorporating Easy to Use Data Parallelism.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellerby, Tim

2014-05-01

Model Integration System (MIST) is open-source environmental modelling programming language that directly incorporates data parallelism. The language is designed to enable straightforward programming structures, such as nested loops and conditional statements to be directly translated into sequences of whole-array (or more generally whole data-structure) operations. MIST thus enables the programmer to use well-understood constructs, directly relating to the mathematical structure of the model, without having to explicitly vectorize code or worry about details of parallelization. A range of common modelling operations are supported by dedicated language structures operating on cell neighbourhoods rather than individual cells (e.g.: the 3x3 local neighbourhood needed to implement an averaging image filter can be simply accessed from within a simple loop traversing all image pixels). This facility hides details of inter-process communication behind more mathematically relevant descriptions of model dynamics. The MIST automatic vectorization/parallelization process serves both to distribute work among available nodes and separately to control storage requirements for intermediate expressions - enabling operations on very large domains for which memory availability may be an issue. MIST is designed to facilitate efficient interpreter based implementations. A prototype open source interpreter is available, coded in standard FORTRAN 95, with tools to rapidly integrate existing FORTRAN 77 or 95 code libraries. The language is formally specified and thus not limited to FORTRAN implementation or to an interpreter-based approach. A MIST to FORTRAN compiler is under development and volunteers are sought to create an ANSI-C implementation. Parallel processing is currently implemented using OpenMP. However, parallelization code is fully modularised and could be replaced with implementations using other libraries. GPU implementation is potentially possible.

Language and Social Dynamics

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

essays , online ads, books, lyrics , poems, speeches, and other text samples in English, Spanish, Arabic, and other languages. Finally, we have been...Note. Percentage refers to percent of total words that each category averages across multiple genres including conversations, essays , novels, etc...analyzing more than 50,000 admissions essays from more than 25,000 students over the last 4 years. We have been able to compare the language of

A pattern-based analysis of clinical computer-interpretable guideline modeling languages.

PubMed

Mulyar, Nataliya; van der Aalst, Wil M P; Peleg, Mor

2007-01-01

Languages used to specify computer-interpretable guidelines (CIGs) differ in their approaches to addressing particular modeling challenges. The main goals of this article are: (1) to examine the expressive power of CIG modeling languages, and (2) to define the differences, from the control-flow perspective, between process languages in workflow management systems and modeling languages used to design clinical guidelines. The pattern-based analysis was applied to guideline modeling languages Asbru, EON, GLIF, and PROforma. We focused on control-flow and left other perspectives out of consideration. We evaluated the selected CIG modeling languages and identified their degree of support of 43 control-flow patterns. We used a set of explicitly defined evaluation criteria to determine whether each pattern is supported directly, indirectly, or not at all. PROforma offers direct support for 22 of 43 patterns, Asbru 20, GLIF 17, and EON 11. All four directly support basic control-flow patterns, cancellation patterns, and some advance branching and synchronization patterns. None support multiple instances patterns. They offer varying levels of support for synchronizing merge patterns and state-based patterns. Some support a few scenarios not covered by the 43 control-flow patterns. CIG modeling languages are remarkably close to traditional workflow languages from the control-flow perspective, but cover many fewer workflow patterns. CIG languages offer some flexibility that supports modeling of complex decisions and provide ways for modeling some decisions not covered by workflow management systems. Workflow management systems may be suitable for clinical guideline applications.

Approach to functional magnetic resonance imaging of language based on models of language organization.

PubMed

McGraw, P; Mathews, V P; Wang, Y; Phillips, M D

2001-05-01

Functional MR imaging (fMRI) has been a useful tool in the evaluation of language both in normal individuals and patient populations. The purpose of this article is to use various models of language as a framework to review fMRI studies. Specifically, fMRI language studies are subdivided into the following categories: word generation or fluency, passive listening, orthography, phonology, semantics, and syntax.

Dynamic and Contextual Information in HMM Modeling for Handwritten Word Recognition.

PubMed

Bianne-Bernard, Anne-Laure; Menasri, Farès; Al-Hajj Mohamad, Rami; Mokbel, Chafic; Kermorvant, Christopher; Likforman-Sulem, Laurence

2011-10-01

This study aims at building an efficient word recognition system resulting from the combination of three handwriting recognizers. The main component of this combined system is an HMM-based recognizer which considers dynamic and contextual information for a better modeling of writing units. For modeling the contextual units, a state-tying process based on decision tree clustering is introduced. Decision trees are built according to a set of expert-based questions on how characters are written. Questions are divided into global questions, yielding larger clusters, and precise questions, yielding smaller ones. Such clustering enables us to reduce the total number of models and Gaussians densities by 10. We then apply this modeling to the recognition of handwritten words. Experiments are conducted on three publicly available databases based on Latin or Arabic languages: Rimes, IAM, and OpenHart. The results obtained show that contextual information embedded with dynamic modeling significantly improves recognition.

Argumentation Text Construction by Japanese as a Foreign Language Writers: A Dynamic View of Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinnert, Carol; Kobauashi, Hiroe; Katayama, Akemi

2015-01-01

This study takes a dynamic view of transfer as reusing and reshaping previous knowledge in new writing contexts to investigate how novice Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) writers draw on knowledge across languages to construct L1 and L2 texts. We analyzed L1 English and L2 Japanese argumentation essays by the same JFL writers (N = 19) and L1…

Non parametric, self organizing, scalable modeling of spatiotemporal inputs: the sign language paradigm.

PubMed

Caridakis, G; Karpouzis, K; Drosopoulos, A; Kollias, S

2012-12-01

Modeling and recognizing spatiotemporal, as opposed to static input, is a challenging task since it incorporates input dynamics as part of the problem. The vast majority of existing methods tackle the problem as an extension of the static counterpart, using dynamics, such as input derivatives, at feature level and adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques originally designed for solving problems that do not specifically address the temporal aspect. The proposed approach deals with temporal and spatial aspects of the spatiotemporal domain in a discriminative as well as coupling manner. Self Organizing Maps (SOM) model the spatial aspect of the problem and Markov models its temporal counterpart. Incorporation of adjacency, both in training and classification, enhances the overall architecture with robustness and adaptability. The proposed scheme is validated both theoretically, through an error propagation study, and experimentally, on the recognition of individual signs, performed by different, native Greek Sign Language users. Results illustrate the architecture's superiority when compared to Hidden Markov Model techniques and variations both in terms of classification performance and computational cost. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From Needs to Wants: Motivation and the Language Learner.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladousse, Gillian Porter

1982-01-01

Discusses theories of motivation in foreign language learning especially as an interactional, dynamic process focusing on how diffuse needs become channeled into wants through behavior itself. Sociological issues involved include the personality model of the learner and the institutional setting where language is being taught. (Author/BK)

Modelling biological behaviours with the unified modelling language: an immunological case study and critique

PubMed Central

Read, Mark; Andrews, Paul S.; Timmis, Jon; Kumar, Vipin

2014-01-01

We present a framework to assist the diagrammatic modelling of complex biological systems using the unified modelling language (UML). The framework comprises three levels of modelling, ranging in scope from the dynamics of individual model entities to system-level emergent properties. By way of an immunological case study of the mouse disease experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, we show how the framework can be used to produce models that capture and communicate the biological system, detailing how biological entities, interactions and behaviours lead to higher-level emergent properties observed in the real world. We demonstrate how the UML can be successfully applied within our framework, and provide a critique of UML's ability to capture concepts fundamental to immunology and biology more generally. We show how specialized, well-explained diagrams with less formal semantics can be used where no suitable UML formalism exists. We highlight UML's lack of expressive ability concerning cyclic feedbacks in cellular networks, and the compounding concurrency arising from huge numbers of stochastic, interacting agents. To compensate for this, we propose several additional relationships for expressing these concepts in UML's activity diagram. We also demonstrate the ambiguous nature of class diagrams when applied to complex biology, and question their utility in modelling such dynamic systems. Models created through our framework are non-executable, and expressly free of simulation implementation concerns. They are a valuable complement and precursor to simulation specifications and implementations, focusing purely on thoroughly exploring the biology, recording hypotheses and assumptions, and serve as a communication medium detailing exactly how a simulation relates to the real biology. PMID:25142524

Modelling biological behaviours with the unified modelling language: an immunological case study and critique.

PubMed

Read, Mark; Andrews, Paul S; Timmis, Jon; Kumar, Vipin

2014-10-06

We present a framework to assist the diagrammatic modelling of complex biological systems using the unified modelling language (UML). The framework comprises three levels of modelling, ranging in scope from the dynamics of individual model entities to system-level emergent properties. By way of an immunological case study of the mouse disease experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, we show how the framework can be used to produce models that capture and communicate the biological system, detailing how biological entities, interactions and behaviours lead to higher-level emergent properties observed in the real world. We demonstrate how the UML can be successfully applied within our framework, and provide a critique of UML's ability to capture concepts fundamental to immunology and biology more generally. We show how specialized, well-explained diagrams with less formal semantics can be used where no suitable UML formalism exists. We highlight UML's lack of expressive ability concerning cyclic feedbacks in cellular networks, and the compounding concurrency arising from huge numbers of stochastic, interacting agents. To compensate for this, we propose several additional relationships for expressing these concepts in UML's activity diagram. We also demonstrate the ambiguous nature of class diagrams when applied to complex biology, and question their utility in modelling such dynamic systems. Models created through our framework are non-executable, and expressly free of simulation implementation concerns. They are a valuable complement and precursor to simulation specifications and implementations, focusing purely on thoroughly exploring the biology, recording hypotheses and assumptions, and serve as a communication medium detailing exactly how a simulation relates to the real biology.

Modeling social learning of language and skills.

PubMed

Vogt, Paul; Haasdijk, Evert

2010-01-01

We present a model of social learning of both language and skills, while assuming—insofar as possible—strict autonomy, virtual embodiment, and situatedness. This model is built by integrating various previous models of language development and social learning, and it is this integration that, under the mentioned assumptions, provides novel challenges. The aim of the article is to investigate what sociocognitive mechanisms agents should have in order to be able to transmit language from one generation to the next so that it can be used as a medium to transmit internalized rules that represent skill knowledge. We have performed experiments where this knowledge solves the familiar poisonous-food problem. Simulations reveal under what conditions, regarding population structure, agents can successfully solve this problem. In addition to issues relating to perspective taking and mutual exclusivity, we show that agents need to coordinate interactions so that they can establish joint attention in order to form a scaffold for language learning, which in turn forms a scaffold for the learning of rule-based skills. Based on these findings, we conclude by hypothesizing that social learning at one level forms a scaffold for the social learning at another, higher level, thus contributing to the accumulation of cultural knowledge.

The CEFR and the Dynamics of Second Language Learning: Trends and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowie, Wander

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the pedagogical implications of Dynamic Systems Theory approaches to second language development. The main question addressed is whether it is possible to describe a learner's level of proficiency with a simple and unambiguous label, and if so, whether the CEFR can provide such a label. It is argued that considering the…

Bioinactivation: Software for modelling dynamic microbial inactivation.

PubMed

Garre, Alberto; Fernández, Pablo S; Lindqvist, Roland; Egea, Jose A

2017-03-01

This contribution presents the bioinactivation software, which implements functions for the modelling of isothermal and non-isothermal microbial inactivation. This software offers features such as user-friendliness, modelling of dynamic conditions, possibility to choose the fitting algorithm and generation of prediction intervals. The software is offered in two different formats: Bioinactivation core and Bioinactivation SE. Bioinactivation core is a package for the R programming language, which includes features for the generation of predictions and for the fitting of models to inactivation experiments using non-linear regression or a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm (MCMC). The calculations are based on inactivation models common in academia and industry (Bigelow, Peleg, Mafart and Geeraerd). Bioinactivation SE supplies a user-friendly interface to selected functions of Bioinactivation core, namely the model fitting of non-isothermal experiments and the generation of prediction intervals. The capabilities of bioinactivation are presented in this paper through a case study, modelling the non-isothermal inactivation of Bacillus sporothermodurans. This study has provided a full characterization of the response of the bacteria to dynamic temperature conditions, including confidence intervals for the model parameters and a prediction interval of the survivor curve. We conclude that the MCMC algorithm produces a better characterization of the biological uncertainty and variability than non-linear regression. The bioinactivation software can be relevant to the food and pharmaceutical industry, as well as to regulatory agencies, as part of a (quantitative) microbial risk assessment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flight Dynamic Model Exchange using XML

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, E. Bruce; Hildreth, Bruce L.

2002-01-01

The AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technical Committee has worked for several years to develop a standard by which the information needed to develop physics-based models of aircraft can be specified. The purpose of this standard is to provide a well-defined set of information, definitions, data tables and axis systems so that cooperating organizations can transfer a model from one simulation facility to another with maximum efficiency. This paper proposes using an application of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to implement the AIAA simulation standard. The motivation and justification for using a standard such as XML is discussed. Necessary data elements to be supported are outlined. An example of an aerodynamic model as an XML file is given. This example includes definition of independent and dependent variables for function tables, definition of key variables used to define the model, and axis systems used. The final steps necessary for implementation of the standard are presented. Software to take an XML-defined model and import/export it to/from a given simulation facility is discussed, but not demonstrated. That would be the next step in final implementation of standards for physics-based aircraft dynamic models.

The Use of Self-Modeling To Train Expressive Language Skills with Preschool Children with Language Delays.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buggey, Tom

In this investigation, a case study approach was used with two preschool children with language delays to determine whether videotaped self-modeling (VSM) intervention would influence their expressive language development. Language samples of both children were videotaped and then edited to leave only the best examples of the target language…

Bayesian Recurrent Neural Network for Language Modeling.

PubMed

Chien, Jen-Tzung; Ku, Yuan-Chu

2016-02-01

A language model (LM) is calculated as the probability of a word sequence that provides the solution to word prediction for a variety of information systems. A recurrent neural network (RNN) is powerful to learn the large-span dynamics of a word sequence in the continuous space. However, the training of the RNN-LM is an ill-posed problem because of too many parameters from a large dictionary size and a high-dimensional hidden layer. This paper presents a Bayesian approach to regularize the RNN-LM and apply it for continuous speech recognition. We aim to penalize the too complicated RNN-LM by compensating for the uncertainty of the estimated model parameters, which is represented by a Gaussian prior. The objective function in a Bayesian classification network is formed as the regularized cross-entropy error function. The regularized model is constructed not only by calculating the regularized parameters according to the maximum a posteriori criterion but also by estimating the Gaussian hyperparameter by maximizing the marginal likelihood. A rapid approximation to a Hessian matrix is developed to implement the Bayesian RNN-LM (BRNN-LM) by selecting a small set of salient outer-products. The proposed BRNN-LM achieves a sparser model than the RNN-LM. Experiments on different corpora show the robustness of system performance by applying the rapid BRNN-LM under different conditions.

Modeling the Chinese language as an evolving network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Wei; Shi, Yuming; Huang, Qiuling

2014-01-01

The evolution of Chinese language has three main features: the total number of characters is gradually increasing, new words are generated in the existing characters, and some old words are no longer used in daily-life language. Based on the features, we propose an evolving language network model. Finally, we use this model to simulate the character co-occurrence networks (nodes are characters, and two characters are connected by an edge if they are adjacent to each other) constructed from essays in 11 different periods of China, and find that characters that appear with high frequency in old words are likely to be reused when new words are formed.

Progress Toward a Format Standard for Flight Dynamics Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, E. Bruce; Hildreth, Bruce L.

2006-01-01

In the beginning, there was FORTRAN, and it was... not so good. But it was universal, and all flight simulator equations of motion were coded with it. Then came ACSL, C, Ada, C++, C#, Java, FORTRAN-90, Matlab/Simulink, and a number of other programming languages. Since the halcyon punch card days of 1968, models of aircraft flight dynamics have proliferated in training devices, desktop engineering and development computers, and control design textbooks. With the rise of industry teaming and increased reliance on simulation for procurement decisions, aircraft and missile simulation models are created, updated, and exchanged with increasing frequency. However, there is no real lingua franca to facilitate the exchange of models from one simulation user to another. The current state-of-the-art is such that several staff-months if not staff-years are required to 'rehost' each release of a flight dynamics model from one simulation environment to another one. If a standard data package or exchange format were to be universally adopted, the cost and time of sharing and updating aerodynamics, control laws, mass and inertia, and other flight dynamic components of the equations of motion of an aircraft or spacecraft simulation could be drastically reduced. A 2002 paper estimated over $ 6 million in savings could be realized for one military aircraft type alone. This paper describes the efforts of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to develop a standard flight dynamic model exchange standard based on XML and HDF-5 data formats.

A conceptual data model and modelling language for fields and agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Bakker, Merijn; de Jong, Kor; Schmitz, Oliver; Karssenberg, Derek

2016-04-01

Modelling is essential in order to understand environmental systems. Environmental systems are heterogeneous because they consist of fields and agents. Fields have a value defined everywhere at all times, for example surface elevation and temperature. Agents are bounded in space and time and have a value only within their bounds, for example biomass of a tree crown or the speed of a car. Many phenomena have properties of both fields and agents. Although many systems contain both fields and agents and integration of these concepts would be required for modelling, existing modelling frameworks concentrate on either agent-based or field-based modelling and are often low-level programming frameworks. A concept is lacking that integrates fields and agents in a way that is easy to use for modelers who are not software engineers. To address this issue, we develop a conceptual data model that represents fields and agents uniformly. We then show how the data model can be used in a high-level modelling language. The data model represents fields and agents in space-time. Also relations and networks can be represented using the same concepts. Using the conceptual data model we can represent static and mobile agents that may have spatial and temporal variation within their extent. The concepts we use are phenomenon, property set, item, property, domain and value. The phenomenon is the thing that is modelled, which can be any real world thing, for example trees. A phenomenon usually consists of several items, e.g. single trees. The domain is the spatiotemporal location and/or extent for which the items in the phenomenon are defined. Multiple different domains can coexist for a given phenomenon. For example a domain describing the extent of the trees and a domain describing the stem locations. The same goes for the property, which is an attribute of the thing that is being modeled. A property has a value, which is possibly discretized, for example the biomass over the tree crown

Optimizing DNA assembly based on statistical language modelling.

PubMed

Fang, Gang; Zhang, Shemin; Dong, Yafei

2017-12-15

By successively assembling genetic parts such as BioBrick according to grammatical models, complex genetic constructs composed of dozens of functional blocks can be built. However, usually every category of genetic parts includes a few or many parts. With increasing quantity of genetic parts, the process of assembling more than a few sets of these parts can be expensive, time consuming and error prone. At the last step of assembling it is somewhat difficult to decide which part should be selected. Based on statistical language model, which is a probability distribution P(s) over strings S that attempts to reflect how frequently a string S occurs as a sentence, the most commonly used parts will be selected. Then, a dynamic programming algorithm was designed to figure out the solution of maximum probability. The algorithm optimizes the results of a genetic design based on a grammatical model and finds an optimal solution. In this way, redundant operations can be reduced and the time and cost required for conducting biological experiments can be minimized. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Imitation, Sign Language Skill and the Developmental Ease of Language Understanding (D-ELU) Model.

PubMed

Holmer, Emil; Heimann, Mikael; Rudner, Mary

2016-01-01

Imitation and language processing are closely connected. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) pre-existing mental representation of lexical items facilitates language understanding. Thus, imitation of manual gestures is likely to be enhanced by experience of sign language. We tested this by eliciting imitation of manual gestures from deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing and hearing non-signing children at a similar level of language and cognitive development. We predicted that the DHH signing children would be better at imitating gestures lexicalized in their own sign language (Swedish Sign Language, SSL) than unfamiliar British Sign Language (BSL) signs, and that both groups would be better at imitating lexical signs (SSL and BSL) than non-signs. We also predicted that the hearing non-signing children would perform worse than DHH signing children with all types of gestures the first time (T1) we elicited imitation, but that the performance gap between groups would be reduced when imitation was elicited a second time (T2). Finally, we predicted that imitation performance on both occasions would be associated with linguistic skills, especially in the manual modality. A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that DHH signers imitated manual gestures with greater precision than non-signing children when imitation was elicited the second but not the first time. Manual gestures were easier to imitate for both groups when they were lexicalized than when they were not; but there was no difference in performance between familiar and unfamiliar gestures. For both groups, language skills at T1 predicted imitation at T2. Specifically, for DHH children, word reading skills, comprehension and phonological awareness of sign language predicted imitation at T2. For the hearing participants, language comprehension predicted imitation at T2, even after the effects of working memory capacity and motor skills were taken into

Imitation, Sign Language Skill and the Developmental Ease of Language Understanding (D-ELU) Model

PubMed Central

Holmer, Emil; Heimann, Mikael; Rudner, Mary

2016-01-01

Imitation and language processing are closely connected. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) pre-existing mental representation of lexical items facilitates language understanding. Thus, imitation of manual gestures is likely to be enhanced by experience of sign language. We tested this by eliciting imitation of manual gestures from deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing and hearing non-signing children at a similar level of language and cognitive development. We predicted that the DHH signing children would be better at imitating gestures lexicalized in their own sign language (Swedish Sign Language, SSL) than unfamiliar British Sign Language (BSL) signs, and that both groups would be better at imitating lexical signs (SSL and BSL) than non-signs. We also predicted that the hearing non-signing children would perform worse than DHH signing children with all types of gestures the first time (T1) we elicited imitation, but that the performance gap between groups would be reduced when imitation was elicited a second time (T2). Finally, we predicted that imitation performance on both occasions would be associated with linguistic skills, especially in the manual modality. A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that DHH signers imitated manual gestures with greater precision than non-signing children when imitation was elicited the second but not the first time. Manual gestures were easier to imitate for both groups when they were lexicalized than when they were not; but there was no difference in performance between familiar and unfamiliar gestures. For both groups, language skills at T1 predicted imitation at T2. Specifically, for DHH children, word reading skills, comprehension and phonological awareness of sign language predicted imitation at T2. For the hearing participants, language comprehension predicted imitation at T2, even after the effects of working memory capacity and motor skills were taken into

Linguistic steganography on Twitter: hierarchical language modeling with manual interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Alex; Blunsom, Phil; Ker, Andrew D.

2014-02-01

This work proposes a natural language stegosystem for Twitter, modifying tweets as they are written to hide 4 bits of payload per tweet, which is a greater payload than previous systems have achieved. The system, CoverTweet, includes novel components, as well as some already developed in the literature. We believe that the task of transforming covers during embedding is equivalent to unilingual machine translation (paraphrasing), and we use this equivalence to de ne a distortion measure based on statistical machine translation methods. The system incorporates this measure of distortion to rank possible tweet paraphrases, using a hierarchical language model; we use human interaction as a second distortion measure to pick the best. The hierarchical language model is designed to model the speci c language of the covers, which in this setting is the language of the Twitter user who is embedding. This is a change from previous work, where general-purpose language models have been used. We evaluate our system by testing the output against human judges, and show that humans are unable to distinguish stego tweets from cover tweets any better than random guessing.

A neurocognitive perspective on language: the declarative/procedural model.

PubMed

Ullman, M T

2001-10-01

What are the psychological, computational and neural underpinnings of language? Are these neurocognitive correlates dedicated to language? Do different parts of language depend on distinct neurocognitive systems? Here I address these and other issues that are crucial for our understanding of two fundamental language capacities: the memorization of words in the mental lexicon, and the rule-governed combination of words by the mental grammar. According to the declarative/procedural model, the mental lexicon depends on declarative memory and is rooted in the temporal lobe, whereas the mental grammar involves procedural memory and is rooted in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia. I argue that the declarative/procedural model provides a new framework for the study of lexicon and grammar.

Equivalent Dynamic Models.

PubMed

Molenaar, Peter C M

2017-01-01

Equivalences of two classes of dynamic models for weakly stationary multivariate time series are discussed: dynamic factor models and autoregressive models. It is shown that exploratory dynamic factor models can be rotated, yielding an infinite set of equivalent solutions for any observed series. It also is shown that dynamic factor models with lagged factor loadings are not equivalent to the currently popular state-space models, and that restriction of attention to the latter type of models may yield invalid results. The known equivalent vector autoregressive model types, standard and structural, are given a new interpretation in which they are conceived of as the extremes of an innovating type of hybrid vector autoregressive models. It is shown that consideration of hybrid models solves many problems, in particular with Granger causality testing.

Hybrid computers and simulation languages in the study of dynamics of continuous systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Acaccia, G. M.; Lucifredi, A. L.

1970-01-01

A comparison is presented of the use of hybrid computers and simulation languages as a means of studying the behavior of dynamic systems. Both procedures are defined and their advantages and disadvantages at the present state of the art are discussed. Some comparison and evaluation criteria are presented.

Parents' and speech and language therapists' explanatory models of language development, language delay and intervention.

PubMed

Marshall, Julie; Goldbart, Juliet; Phillips, Julie

2007-01-01

Parental and speech and language therapist (SLT) explanatory models may affect engagement with speech and language therapy, but there has been dearth of research in this area. This study investigated parents' and SLTs' views about language development, delay and intervention in pre-school children with language delay. The aims were to describe, explore and explain the thoughts, understandings, perceptions, beliefs, knowledge and feelings held by: a group of parents from East Manchester, UK, whose pre-school children had been referred with suspected language delay; and SLTs working in the same area, in relation to language development, language delay and language intervention. A total of 24 unstructured interviews were carried out: 15 with parents whose children had been referred for speech and language therapy and nine with SLTs who worked with pre-school children. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded using Atlas/ti. The data were analysed, subjected to respondent validation, and grounded theories and principled descriptions developed to explain and describe parents' and SLTs' beliefs and views. Parent and SLT data are presented separately. There are commonalities and differences between the parents and the SLTs. Both groups believe that language development and delay are influenced by both external and internal factors. Parents give more weight to the role of gender, imitation and personality and value television and videos, whereas the SLTs value the 'right environment' and listening skills and consider that health/disability and socio-economic factors are important. Parents see themselves as experts on their child and have varied ideas about the role of SLTs, which do not always accord with SLTs' views. The parents and SLTs differ in their views of the roles of imitation and play in intervention. Parents typically try strategies before seeing an SLT. These data suggest that parents' ideas vary and that, although parents and SLTs may share some

A Language Training Strategy for Teaching Young Language-Delayed Children a Functional Syntactical Form.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hester, Peggy; Hendrickson, Jo

A modeling procedure involving dynamic interactions was used to train three language-delayed preschool children to emit five-element syntactic responses. A single-subject multiple baseline design using within- and across-subject replication was employed to study the acquisition of expanded "agent-action-object" sentences and the…

The OMG Modelling Language (SYSML)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hause, M.

2007-08-01

On July 6th 2006, the Object Management Group (OMG) announced the adoption of the OMG Systems Modeling Language (OMG SysML). The SysML specification was in response to the joint Request for Proposal issued by the OMG and INCOSE (the International Council on Systems Engineering) for a customized version of UML 2, designed to address the specific needs of system engineers. SysML is a visual modeling language that extends UML 2 in order to support the specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of complex systems. This paper will look at the background of SysML and summarize the SysML specification including the modifications to UML 2.0, along with the new requirement and parametric diagrams. It will also show how SysML artifacts can be used to specify the requirements for other solution spaces such as software and hardware to provide handover to other disciplines.

Plant Phenotyping using Probabilistic Topic Models: Uncovering the Hyperspectral Language of Plants

PubMed Central

Wahabzada, Mirwaes; Mahlein, Anne-Katrin; Bauckhage, Christian; Steiner, Ulrike; Oerke, Erich-Christian; Kersting, Kristian

2016-01-01

Modern phenotyping and plant disease detection methods, based on optical sensors and information technology, provide promising approaches to plant research and precision farming. In particular, hyperspectral imaging have been found to reveal physiological and structural characteristics in plants and to allow for tracking physiological dynamics due to environmental effects. In this work, we present an approach to plant phenotyping that integrates non-invasive sensors, computer vision, as well as data mining techniques and allows for monitoring how plants respond to stress. To uncover latent hyperspectral characteristics of diseased plants reliably and in an easy-to-understand way, we “wordify” the hyperspectral images, i.e., we turn the images into a corpus of text documents. Then, we apply probabilistic topic models, a well-established natural language processing technique that identifies content and topics of documents. Based on recent regularized topic models, we demonstrate that one can track automatically the development of three foliar diseases of barley. We also present a visualization of the topics that provides plant scientists an intuitive tool for hyperspectral imaging. In short, our analysis and visualization of characteristic topics found during symptom development and disease progress reveal the hyperspectral language of plant diseases. PMID:26957018

Model-based query language for analyzing clinical processes.

PubMed

Barzdins, Janis; Barzdins, Juris; Rencis, Edgars; Sostaks, Agris

2013-01-01

Nowadays large databases of clinical process data exist in hospitals. However, these data are rarely used in full scope. In order to perform queries on hospital processes, one must either choose from the predefined queries or develop queries using MS Excel-type software system, which is not always a trivial task. In this paper we propose a new query language for analyzing clinical processes that is easily perceptible also by non-IT professionals. We develop this language based on a process modeling language which is also described in this paper. Prototypes of both languages have already been verified using real examples from hospitals.

Modelling of internal architecture of kinesin nanomotor as a machine language.

PubMed

Khataee, H R; Ibrahim, M Y

2012-09-01

Kinesin is a protein-based natural nanomotor that transports molecular cargoes within cells by walking along microtubules. Kinesin nanomotor is considered as a bio-nanoagent which is able to sense the cell through its sensors (i.e. its heads and tail), make the decision internally and perform actions on the cell through its actuator (i.e. its motor domain). The study maps the agent-based architectural model of internal decision-making process of kinesin nanomotor to a machine language using an automata algorithm. The applied automata algorithm receives the internal agent-based architectural model of kinesin nanomotor as a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) model and generates a regular machine language. The generated regular machine language was acceptable by the architectural DFA model of the nanomotor and also in good agreement with its natural behaviour. The internal agent-based architectural model of kinesin nanomotor indicates the degree of autonomy and intelligence of the nanomotor interactions with its cell. Thus, our developed regular machine language can model the degree of autonomy and intelligence of kinesin nanomotor interactions with its cell as a language. Modelling of internal architectures of autonomous and intelligent bio-nanosystems as machine languages can lay the foundation towards the concept of bio-nanoswarms and next phases of the bio-nanorobotic systems development.

Improving Domain-specific Machine Translation by Constraining the Language Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-01

performance. To make up for the lack of parallel training data, one assumption is that more monolingual target language data should be used in building the...target language model. Prior work on domain-specific MT has focused on training target language models with monolingual 2 domain-specific data...showed that the using a large dictionary extracted from medical domain documents in a statistical MT system to generalize the training data significantly

Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: Efficient, Accurate Identification of Language Impairment in Bilingual Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Douglas B.; Chanthongthip, Helen; Ukrainetz, Teresa A.; Spencer, Trina D.; Steeve, Roger W.

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the classification accuracy of a concentrated English narrative dynamic assessment (DA) for identifying language impairment (LI). Method: Forty-two Spanish-English bilingual kindergarten to third-grade children (10 LI and 32 with no LI) were administered two 25-min DA test-teach-test sessions. Pre- and posttest…

Measuring Group Work Dynamics and Its Relation with L2 Learners' Task Motivation and Language Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poupore, Glen

2016-01-01

While learners of a second language (L2) are increasingly interacting in small groups as part of a communicative methodological paradigm, very few studies have investigated the social dynamics that occur in such groups. The aim of this study is to introduce a group work dynamic measuring instrument and to investigate the relationship between group…

Toward Integration: An Instructional Model of Science and Academic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva, Cecilia; Weinburgh, Molly; Malloy, Robert; Smith, Kathy Horak; Marshall, Jenesta Nettles

2012-01-01

In this article, the authors outline an instructional model that can be used to optimize science and language learning in the classroom. The authors have developed the 5R instructional model (Weinburgh & Silva, 2010) to support teachers as they integrate academic language into content instruction. The model combines five strategies already…

Language Choices: Conditions, Constraints, and Consequences. Impact Studies in Language and Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Putz, Martin, Ed.

The collection of essays on language contact and language conflict includes: "Language Choices: Contact and Conflict?" (Martin Putz); "Language Ecology: Contact Without Conflict" (Peter Muhlhausler); "Towards a Dynamic View of Multilingualism" (Ulrike Jessner); "A Matter of Choice" (Florian Coulmas); The…

Modelling the Perceived Value of Compulsory English Language Education in Undergraduate Non-Language Majors of Japanese Nationality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivers, Damian J.

2012-01-01

Adopting mixed methods of data collection and analysis, the current study models the "perceived value of compulsory English language education" in a sample of 138 undergraduate non-language majors of Japanese nationality at a national university in Japan. During the orientation period of a compulsory 15-week English language programme,…

The introspective may achieve more: Enhancing existing Geoscientific models with native-language emulated structural reflection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Xinye; Shen, Chaopeng

2018-01-01

Geoscientific models manage myriad and increasingly complex data structures as trans-disciplinary models are integrated. They often incur significant redundancy with cross-cutting tasks. Reflection, the ability of a program to inspect and modify its structure and behavior at runtime, is known as a powerful tool to improve code reusability, abstraction, and separation of concerns. Reflection is rarely adopted in high-performance Geoscientific models, especially with Fortran, where it was previously deemed implausible. Practical constraints of language and legacy often limit us to feather-weight, native-language solutions. We demonstrate the usefulness of a structural-reflection-emulating, dynamically-linked metaObjects, gd. We show real-world examples including data structure self-assembly, effortless input/output (IO) and upgrade to parallel I/O, recursive actions and batch operations. We share gd and a derived module that reproduces MATLAB-like structure in Fortran and C++. We suggest that both a gd representation and a Fortran-native representation are maintained to access the data, each for separate purposes. Embracing emulated reflection allows generically-written codes that are highly re-usable across projects.

A neural network model of metaphor understanding with dynamic interaction based on a statistical language analysis: targeting a human-like model.

PubMed

Terai, Asuka; Nakagawa, Masanori

2007-08-01

The purpose of this paper is to construct a model that represents the human process of understanding metaphors, focusing specifically on similes of the form an "A like B". Generally speaking, human beings are able to generate and understand many sorts of metaphors. This study constructs the model based on a probabilistic knowledge structure for concepts which is computed from a statistical analysis of a large-scale corpus. Consequently, this model is able to cover the many kinds of metaphors that human beings can generate. Moreover, the model implements the dynamic process of metaphor understanding by using a neural network with dynamic interactions. Finally, the validity of the model is confirmed by comparing model simulations with the results from a psychological experiment.

Language-Independent and Language-Specific Aspects of Early Literacy: An Evaluation of the Common Underlying Proficiency Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodrich, J. Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

According to the common underlying proficiency model (Cummins, 1981), as children acquire academic knowledge and skills in their first language, they also acquire language-independent information about those skills that can be applied when learning a second language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of the common underlying…

Generating structure from experience: A retrieval-based model of language processing.

PubMed

Johns, Brendan T; Jones, Michael N

2015-09-01

Standard theories of language generally assume that some abstraction of linguistic input is necessary to create higher level representations of linguistic structures (e.g., a grammar). However, the importance of individual experiences with language has recently been emphasized by both usage-based theories (Tomasello, 2003) and grounded and situated theories (e.g., Zwaan & Madden, 2005). Following the usage-based approach, we present a formal exemplar model that stores instances of sentences across a natural language corpus, applying recent advances from models of semantic memory. In this model, an exemplar memory is used to generate expectations about the future structure of sentences, using a mechanism for prediction in language processing (Altmann & Mirković, 2009). The model successfully captures a broad range of behavioral effects-reduced relative clause processing (Reali & Christiansen, 2007), the role of contextual constraint (Rayner & Well, 1996), and event knowledge activation (Ferretti, Kutas, & McRae, 2007), among others. We further demonstrate how perceptual knowledge could be integrated into this exemplar-based framework, with the goal of grounding language processing in perception. Finally, we illustrate how an exemplar memory system could have been used in the cultural evolution of language. The model provides evidence that an impressive amount of language processing may be bottom-up in nature, built on the storage and retrieval of individual linguistic experiences. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonological deficits in specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia: towards a multidimensional model

PubMed Central

Ramus, Franck; Marshall, Chloe R.; Rosen, Stuart

2013-01-01

An on-going debate surrounds the relationship between specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia, in particular with respect to their phonological abilities. Are these distinct disorders? To what extent do they overlap? Which cognitive and linguistic profiles correspond to specific language impairment, dyslexia and comorbid cases? At least three different models have been proposed: the severity model, the additional deficit model and the component model. We address this issue by comparing children with specific language impairment only, those with dyslexia-only, those with specific language impairment and dyslexia and those with no impairment, using a broad test battery of language skills. We find that specific language impairment and dyslexia do not always co-occur, and that some children with specific language impairment do not have a phonological deficit. Using factor analysis, we find that language abilities across the four groups of children have at least three independent sources of variance: one for non-phonological language skills and two for distinct sets of phonological abilities (which we term phonological skills versus phonological representations). Furthermore, children with specific language impairment and dyslexia show partly distinct profiles of phonological deficit along these two dimensions. We conclude that a multiple-component model of language abilities best explains the relationship between specific language impairment and dyslexia and the different profiles of impairment that are observed. PMID:23413264

Language Use in Real-time Interactions during Early Elementary Science Lessons: The Bidirectional Dynamics of the Language Complexity of Teachers and Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menninga, Astrid; van Dijk, Marijn; Steenbeek, Henderien; van Geert, Paul

2017-01-01

This study used a dynamic approach to explore bidirectional sequential relations between the real-time language use of teachers and students in naturalistic early elementary science lessons. It also compared experienced teachers (n = 22) with novice teachers (n = 8) with respect to such relations. Verbal interactions were transcribed and coded at…

Neural reuse of action perception circuits for language, concepts and communication.

PubMed

Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2018-01-01

Neurocognitive and neurolinguistics theories make explicit statements relating specialized cognitive and linguistic processes to specific brain loci. These linking hypotheses are in need of neurobiological justification and explanation. Recent mathematical models of human language mechanisms constrained by fundamental neuroscience principles and established knowledge about comparative neuroanatomy offer explanations for where, when and how language is processed in the human brain. In these models, network structure and connectivity along with action- and perception-induced correlation of neuronal activity co-determine neurocognitive mechanisms. Language learning leads to the formation of action perception circuits (APCs) with specific distributions across cortical areas. Cognitive and linguistic processes such as speech production, comprehension, verbal working memory and prediction are modelled by activity dynamics in these APCs, and combinatorial and communicative-interactive knowledge is organized in the dynamics within, and connections between APCs. The network models and, in particular, the concept of distributionally-specific circuits, can account for some previously not well understood facts about the cortical 'hubs' for semantic processing and the motor system's role in language understanding and speech sound recognition. A review of experimental data evaluates predictions of the APC model and alternative theories, also providing detailed discussion of some seemingly contradictory findings. Throughout, recent disputes about the role of mirror neurons and grounded cognition in language and communication are assessed critically. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Bellman's GAP--a language and compiler for dynamic programming in sequence analysis.

PubMed

Sauthoff, Georg; Möhl, Mathias; Janssen, Stefan; Giegerich, Robert

2013-03-01

Dynamic programming is ubiquitous in bioinformatics. Developing and implementing non-trivial dynamic programming algorithms is often error prone and tedious. Bellman's GAP is a new programming system, designed to ease the development of bioinformatics tools based on the dynamic programming technique. In Bellman's GAP, dynamic programming algorithms are described in a declarative style by tree grammars, evaluation algebras and products formed thereof. This bypasses the design of explicit dynamic programming recurrences and yields programs that are free of subscript errors, modular and easy to modify. The declarative modules are compiled into C++ code that is competitive to carefully hand-crafted implementations. This article introduces the Bellman's GAP system and its language, GAP-L. It then demonstrates the ease of development and the degree of re-use by creating variants of two common bioinformatics algorithms. Finally, it evaluates Bellman's GAP as an implementation platform of 'real-world' bioinformatics tools. Bellman's GAP is available under GPL license from http://bibiserv.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de/bellmansgap. This Web site includes a repository of re-usable modules for RNA folding based on thermodynamics.

Language Loss and the Crisis of Cognition: Between Socio- and Psycholinguistics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenny, K. Dallas

A non-structural model is proposed for quantifying and analyzing the dynamics of language attrition, particularly among immigrants in a second language environment, based on examination of disfluencies (hesitations, errors, and repairs). The first chapter discusses limitations of the conventional synchronic textual approach to analyzing language…

Enhancing English Language Planning Strategy Using a WebQuest Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Sayed, Rania Kamal Muhammad; Abdel-Haq, Eman Muhammad; El-Deeb, Mervat Abou-Bakr; Ali, Mahsoub Abdel-Sadeq

2016-01-01

The present study aimed at developing English language planning strategy of second year distinguished governmental language preparatory school pupils using the a WebQuest model. Fifty participants from second year at Hassan Abu-Bakr Distinguished Governmental Language School at Al-Qanater Al-Khairia (Qalubia Governorate) were randomly assigned…

The Effect of Dual-Language and Transitional-Bilingual Education Instructional Models on Spanish Proficiency for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Audrey Figueroa

2014-01-01

The effects of "transitional-bilingual" and "dual-language" educational models on proficiency in students' home language (Spanish) were examined in a study of English language learners in the first and second grades in a large urban elementary school. In each grade, students were taught with either a transitional-bilingual…

Foreign Language Methods and an Information Processing Model of Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willebrand, Julia

The major approaches to language teaching (audiolingual method, generative grammar, Community Language Learning and Silent Way) are investigated to discover whether or not they are compatible in structure with an information-processing model of memory (IPM). The model of memory used was described by Roberta Klatzky in "Human Memory:…

Bayesian molecular design with a chemical language model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ikebata, Hisaki; Hongo, Kenta; Isomura, Tetsu; Maezono, Ryo; Yoshida, Ryo

2017-04-01

The aim of computational molecular design is the identification of promising hypothetical molecules with a predefined set of desired properties. We address the issue of accelerating the material discovery with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. The method involves two different types of prediction; the forward and backward predictions. The objective of the forward prediction is to create a set of machine learning models on various properties of a given molecule. Inverting the trained forward models through Bayes' law, we derive a posterior distribution for the backward prediction, which is conditioned by a desired property requirement. Exploring high-probability regions of the posterior with a sequential Monte Carlo technique, molecules that exhibit the desired properties can computationally be created. One major difficulty in the computational creation of molecules is the exclusion of the occurrence of chemically unfavorable structures. To circumvent this issue, we derive a chemical language model that acquires commonly occurring patterns of chemical fragments through natural language processing of ASCII strings of existing compounds, which follow the SMILES chemical language notation. In the backward prediction, the trained language model is used to refine chemical strings such that the properties of the resulting structures fall within the desired property region while chemically unfavorable structures are successfully removed. The present method is demonstrated through the design of small organic molecules with the property requirements on HOMO-LUMO gap and internal energy. The R package iqspr is available at the CRAN repository.

Bayesian molecular design with a chemical language model.

PubMed

Ikebata, Hisaki; Hongo, Kenta; Isomura, Tetsu; Maezono, Ryo; Yoshida, Ryo

2017-04-01

The aim of computational molecular design is the identification of promising hypothetical molecules with a predefined set of desired properties. We address the issue of accelerating the material discovery with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. The method involves two different types of prediction; the forward and backward predictions. The objective of the forward prediction is to create a set of machine learning models on various properties of a given molecule. Inverting the trained forward models through Bayes' law, we derive a posterior distribution for the backward prediction, which is conditioned by a desired property requirement. Exploring high-probability regions of the posterior with a sequential Monte Carlo technique, molecules that exhibit the desired properties can computationally be created. One major difficulty in the computational creation of molecules is the exclusion of the occurrence of chemically unfavorable structures. To circumvent this issue, we derive a chemical language model that acquires commonly occurring patterns of chemical fragments through natural language processing of ASCII strings of existing compounds, which follow the SMILES chemical language notation. In the backward prediction, the trained language model is used to refine chemical strings such that the properties of the resulting structures fall within the desired property region while chemically unfavorable structures are successfully removed. The present method is demonstrated through the design of small organic molecules with the property requirements on HOMO-LUMO gap and internal energy. The R package iqspr is available at the CRAN repository.

Network simulation using the simulation language for alternate modeling (SLAM 2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, S.; Morris, D. W.

1983-01-01

The simulation language for alternate modeling (SLAM 2) is a general purpose language that combines network, discrete event, and continuous modeling capabilities in a single language system. The efficacy of the system's network modeling is examined and discussed. Examples are given of the symbolism that is used, and an example problem and model are derived. The results are discussed in terms of the ease of programming, special features, and system limitations. The system offers many features which allow rapid model development and provides an informative standardized output. The system also has limitations which may cause undetected errors and misleading reports unless the user is aware of these programming characteristics.

Teacher to Teacher: Model Lessons for K-8 Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redmond, Mary Lynn, Ed.; Lorenz, Eileen, Ed.

This book provides resources for foreign language teachers, supervisors, and others involved in developing and implementing a curriculum. It is the outcome of a 1997 institute, "National Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Curriculum Reform for K-8 Foreign Language Education." The model shows how the national standards can be used…

TumorML: Concept and requirements of an in silico cancer modelling markup language.

PubMed

Johnson, David; Cooper, Jonathan; McKeever, Steve

2011-01-01

This paper describes the initial groundwork carried out as part of the European Commission funded Transatlantic Tumor Model Repositories project, to develop a new markup language for computational cancer modelling, TumorML. In this paper we describe the motivations for such a language, arguing that current state-of-the-art biomodelling languages are not suited to the cancer modelling domain. We go on to describe the work that needs to be done to develop TumorML, the conceptual design, and a description of what existing markup languages will be used to compose the language specification.

Andragogical Model in Language Training of Mining Specialists

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bondareva, Evgeniya; Chistyakova, Galina; Kleshevskyi, Yury; Sergeev, Sergey; Stepanov, Aleksey

2017-11-01

Nowadays foreign language competence is one of the main professional skills of mining engineers. Modern competitive conditions require the ability for meeting production challenges in a foreign language from specialists and managers of mining enterprises. This is the reason of high demand on foreign language training/retraining courses. Language training of adult learners fundamentally differs from children and adolescent education. The article describes the features of andragogical learning model. The authors conclude that distance learning is the most productive education form having a number of obvious advantages over traditional (in-class) one. Interactive learning method that involves active engagement of adult trainees appears to be of the greatest interest due to introduction of modern information and communication technologies for distance learning.

An Emergent Account of Language Impairments in Children with SLI: Implications for Assessment and Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Julia L.

2001-01-01

This article discusses current developments in connectionist modeling and the extension of principles of dynamical systems theory to cognitive and language development that have resulted in a new theory of language development known as emergentism. Specific language impairment is discussed within this emergentist view and preliminary implications…

Dynamic modeling and optimal joint torque coordination of advanced robotic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Hee-Jun

, highly versatile, advanced robotic systems. Therefore, finally, a module based dynamic modeling algorithm is presented for the dynamic coordination of such reconfigurable modular robotic systems. A user interactive module based manipulator analysis program (MBMAP) has been coded in C language running on 4D/70 Silicon Graphics.

The introspective may achieve more: Enhancing existing Geoscientific models with native-language emulated structural reflection

DOE PAGES

Ji, Xinye; Shen, Chaopeng

2017-09-28

Geoscientific models manage myriad and increasingly complex data structures as trans-disciplinary models are integrated. They often incur significant redundancy with cross-cutting tasks. Reflection, the ability of a program to inspect and modify its structure and behavior at runtime, is known as a powerful tool to improve code reusability, abstraction, and separation of concerns. Reflection is rarely adopted in high-performance Geoscientific models, especially with Fortran, where it was previously deemed implausible. Practical constraints of language and legacy often limit us to feather-weight, native-language solutions. We demonstrate the usefulness of a structural-reflection-emulating, dynamically-linked metaObjects, gd. We show real-world examples including data structuremore » self-assembly, effortless save/restart and upgrade to parallel I/O, recursive actions and batch operations. We share gd and a derived module that reproduces MATLAB-like structure in Fortran and C++. We suggest that both a gd representation and a Fortran-native representation are maintained to access the data, each for separate purposes. In conclusion, embracing emulated reflection allows generically-written codes that are highly re-usable across projects.« less

The introspective may achieve more: Enhancing existing Geoscientific models with native-language emulated structural reflection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ji, Xinye; Shen, Chaopeng

Geoscientific models manage myriad and increasingly complex data structures as trans-disciplinary models are integrated. They often incur significant redundancy with cross-cutting tasks. Reflection, the ability of a program to inspect and modify its structure and behavior at runtime, is known as a powerful tool to improve code reusability, abstraction, and separation of concerns. Reflection is rarely adopted in high-performance Geoscientific models, especially with Fortran, where it was previously deemed implausible. Practical constraints of language and legacy often limit us to feather-weight, native-language solutions. We demonstrate the usefulness of a structural-reflection-emulating, dynamically-linked metaObjects, gd. We show real-world examples including data structuremore » self-assembly, effortless save/restart and upgrade to parallel I/O, recursive actions and batch operations. We share gd and a derived module that reproduces MATLAB-like structure in Fortran and C++. We suggest that both a gd representation and a Fortran-native representation are maintained to access the data, each for separate purposes. In conclusion, embracing emulated reflection allows generically-written codes that are highly re-usable across projects.« less

Development of Markup Language for Medical Record Charting: A Charting Language.

PubMed

Jung, Won-Mo; Chae, Younbyoung; Jang, Bo-Hyoung

2015-01-01

Nowadays a lot of trials for collecting electronic medical records (EMRs) exist. However, structuring data format for EMR is an especially labour-intensive task for practitioners. Here we propose a new mark-up language for medical record charting (called Charting Language), which borrows useful properties from programming languages. Thus, with Charting Language, the text data described in dynamic situation can be easily used to extract information.

An investigation of difficulties experienced by students developing unified modelling language (UML) class and sequence diagrams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sien, Ven Yu

2011-12-01

Object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) is not an easy subject to learn. There are many challenges confronting students when studying OOAD. Students have particular difficulty abstracting real-world problems within the context of OOAD. They are unable to effectively build object-oriented (OO) models from the problem domain because they essentially do not know "what" to model. This article investigates the difficulties and misconceptions undergraduate students have with analysing systems using unified modelling language analysis class and sequence diagrams. These models were chosen because they represent important static and dynamic aspects of the software system under development. The results of this study will help students produce effective OO models, and facilitate software engineering lecturers design learning materials and approaches for introductory OOAD courses.

The Effects of Dynamic Strategic Math on English Language Learners' Word Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orosco, Michael J.; Swanson, H. Lee; O'Connor, Rollanda; Lussier, Cathy

2013-01-01

English language learners (ELLs) struggle with solving word problems for a number of reasons beyond math procedures or calculation challenges. As a result, ELLs may not only need math support but also reading and linguistic support. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a math comprehension strategy called Dynamic Strategic…

Dynamic Range for Speech Materials in Korean, English, and Mandarin: A Cross-Language Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, In-Ki; Kates, James M.; Arehart, Kathryn H.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify whether differences in dynamic range (DR) are evident across the spoken languages of Korean, English, and Mandarin. Method: Recorded sentence-level speech materials were used as stimuli. DR was quantified using different definitions of DR (defined as the range in decibels from the highest to the…

Vectorial Representations of Meaning for a Computational Model of Language Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Stephen Tze-Inn

2010-01-01

This thesis aims to define and extend a line of computational models for text comprehension that are humanly plausible. Since natural language is human by nature, computational models of human language will always be just that--models. To the degree that they miss out on information that humans would tap into, they may be improved by considering…

Recent advances in modeling languages for pathway maps and computable biological networks.

PubMed

Slater, Ted

2014-02-01

As our theories of systems biology grow more sophisticated, the models we use to represent them become larger and more complex. Languages necessarily have the expressivity and flexibility required to represent these models in ways that support high-resolution annotation, and provide for simulation and analysis that are sophisticated enough to allow researchers to master their data in the proper context. These languages also need to facilitate model sharing and collaboration, which is currently best done by using uniform data structures (such as graphs) and language standards. In this brief review, we discuss three of the most recent systems biology modeling languages to appear: BEL, PySB and BCML, and examine how they meet these needs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The knowledge instinct, cognitive algorithms, modeling of language and cultural evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perlovsky, Leonid I.

2008-04-01

The talk discusses mechanisms of the mind and their engineering applications. The past attempts at designing "intelligent systems" encountered mathematical difficulties related to algorithmic complexity. The culprit turned out to be logic, which in one way or another was used not only in logic rule systems, but also in statistical, neural, and fuzzy systems. Algorithmic complexity is related to Godel's theory, a most fundamental mathematical result. These difficulties were overcome by replacing logic with a dynamic process "from vague to crisp," dynamic logic. It leads to algorithms overcoming combinatorial complexity, and resulting in orders of magnitude improvement in classical problems of detection, tracking, fusion, and prediction in noise. I present engineering applications to pattern recognition, detection, tracking, fusion, financial predictions, and Internet search engines. Mathematical and engineering efficiency of dynamic logic can also be understood as cognitive algorithm, which describes fundamental property of the mind, the knowledge instinct responsible for all our higher cognitive functions: concepts, perception, cognition, instincts, imaginations, intuitions, emotions, including emotions of the beautiful. I present our latest results in modeling evolution of languages and cultures, their interactions in these processes, and role of music in cultural evolution. Experimental data is presented that support the theory. Future directions are outlined.

Lower- and higher-level models of right hemisphere language. A selective survey.

PubMed

Gainotti, Guido

2016-01-01

The models advanced to explain right hemisphere (RH) language function can be divided into two main types. According to the older (lower-level) models, RH language reflects the ontogenesis of conceptual and semantic-lexical development; the more recent models, on the other hand, suggest that the RH plays an important role in the use of higher-level language functions, such as metaphors, to convey complex, abstract concepts. The hypothesis that the RH may be preferentially involved in processing the semantic-lexical components of language was advanced by Zaidel in splitbrain patients and his model was confirmed by neuropsychological investigations, proving that right brain-damaged patients show selective semanticlexical disorders. The possible links between lower and higher levels of RH language are discussed, as is the hypothesis that the RH may have privileged access to the figurative aspects of novel metaphorical expressions, whereas conventionalization of metaphorical meaning could be a bilaterally-mediated process involving abstract semantic-lexical codes.

Lexical prediction via forward models: N400 evidence from German Sign Language.

PubMed

Hosemann, Jana; Herrmann, Annika; Steinbach, Markus; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias

2013-09-01

Models of language processing in the human brain often emphasize the prediction of upcoming input-for example in order to explain the rapidity of language understanding. However, the precise mechanisms of prediction are still poorly understood. Forward models, which draw upon the language production system to set up expectations during comprehension, provide a promising approach in this regard. Here, we present an event-related potential (ERP) study on German Sign Language (DGS) which tested the hypotheses of a forward model perspective on prediction. Sign languages involve relatively long transition phases between one sign and the next, which should be anticipated as part of a forward model-based prediction even though they are semantically empty. Native speakers of DGS watched videos of naturally signed DGS sentences which either ended with an expected or a (semantically) unexpected sign. Unexpected signs engendered a biphasic N400-late positivity pattern. Crucially, N400 onset preceded critical sign onset and was thus clearly elicited by properties of the transition phase. The comprehension system thereby clearly anticipated modality-specific information about the realization of the predicted semantic item. These results provide strong converging support for the application of forward models in language comprehension. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The possibility of coexistence and co-development in language competition: ecology-society computational model and simulation.

PubMed

Yun, Jian; Shang, Song-Chao; Wei, Xiao-Dan; Liu, Shuang; Li, Zhi-Jie

2016-01-01

Language is characterized by both ecological properties and social properties, and competition is the basic form of language evolution. The rise and decline of one language is a result of competition between languages. Moreover, this rise and decline directly influences the diversity of human culture. Mathematics and computer modeling for language competition has been a popular topic in the fields of linguistics, mathematics, computer science, ecology, and other disciplines. Currently, there are several problems in the research on language competition modeling. First, comprehensive mathematical analysis is absent in most studies of language competition models. Next, most language competition models are based on the assumption that one language in the model is stronger than the other. These studies tend to ignore cases where there is a balance of power in the competition. The competition between two well-matched languages is more practical, because it can facilitate the co-development of two languages. A third issue with current studies is that many studies have an evolution result where the weaker language inevitably goes extinct. From the integrated point of view of ecology and sociology, this paper improves the Lotka-Volterra model and basic reaction-diffusion model to propose an "ecology-society" computational model for describing language competition. Furthermore, a strict and comprehensive mathematical analysis was made for the stability of the equilibria. Two languages in competition may be either well-matched or greatly different in strength, which was reflected in the experimental design. The results revealed that language coexistence, and even co-development, are likely to occur during language competition.

Implications of the Turing machine model of computation for processor and programming language design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hunter, Geoffrey

2004-01-01

A computational process is classified according to the theoretical model that is capable of executing it; computational processes that require a non-predeterminable amount of intermediate storage for their execution are Turing-machine (TM) processes, while those whose storage are predeterminable are Finite Automation (FA) processes. Simple processes (such as traffic light controller) are executable by Finite Automation, whereas the most general kind of computation requires a Turing Machine for its execution. This implies that a TM process must have a non-predeterminable amount of memory allocated to it at intermediate instants of its execution; i.e. dynamic memory allocation. Many processes encountered in practice are TM processes. The implication for computational practice is that the hardware (CPU) architecture and its operating system must facilitate dynamic memory allocation, and that the programming language used to specify TM processes must have statements with the semantic attribute of dynamic memory allocation, for in Alan Turing"s thesis on computation (1936) the "standard description" of a process is invariant over the most general data that the process is designed to process; i.e. the program describing the process should never have to be modified to allow for differences in the data that is to be processed in different instantiations; i.e. data-invariant programming. Any non-trivial program is partitioned into sub-programs (procedures, subroutines, functions, modules, etc). Examination of the calls/returns between the subprograms reveals that they are nodes in a tree-structure; this tree-structure is independent of the programming language used to encode (define) the process. Each sub-program typically needs some memory for its own use (to store values intermediate between its received data and its computed results); this locally required memory is not needed before the subprogram commences execution, and it is not needed after its execution terminates

Lexical access in sign language: a computational model.

PubMed

Caselli, Naomi K; Cohen-Goldberg, Ariel M

2014-01-01

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC THEORIES HAVE PREDOMINANTLY BEEN BUILT UPON DATA FROM SPOKEN LANGUAGE, WHICH LEAVES OPEN THE QUESTION: How many of the conclusions truly reflect language-general principles as opposed to modality-specific ones? We take a step toward answering this question in the domain of lexical access in recognition by asking whether a single cognitive architecture might explain diverse behavioral patterns in signed and spoken language. Chen and Mirman (2012) presented a computational model of word processing that unified opposite effects of neighborhood density in speech production, perception, and written word recognition. Neighborhood density effects in sign language also vary depending on whether the neighbors share the same handshape or location. We present a spreading activation architecture that borrows the principles proposed by Chen and Mirman (2012), and show that if this architecture is elaborated to incorporate relatively minor facts about either (1) the time course of sign perception or (2) the frequency of sub-lexical units in sign languages, it produces data that match the experimental findings from sign languages. This work serves as a proof of concept that a single cognitive architecture could underlie both sign and word recognition.

Lexical access in sign language: a computational model

PubMed Central

Caselli, Naomi K.; Cohen-Goldberg, Ariel M.

2014-01-01

Psycholinguistic theories have predominantly been built upon data from spoken language, which leaves open the question: How many of the conclusions truly reflect language-general principles as opposed to modality-specific ones? We take a step toward answering this question in the domain of lexical access in recognition by asking whether a single cognitive architecture might explain diverse behavioral patterns in signed and spoken language. Chen and Mirman (2012) presented a computational model of word processing that unified opposite effects of neighborhood density in speech production, perception, and written word recognition. Neighborhood density effects in sign language also vary depending on whether the neighbors share the same handshape or location. We present a spreading activation architecture that borrows the principles proposed by Chen and Mirman (2012), and show that if this architecture is elaborated to incorporate relatively minor facts about either (1) the time course of sign perception or (2) the frequency of sub-lexical units in sign languages, it produces data that match the experimental findings from sign languages. This work serves as a proof of concept that a single cognitive architecture could underlie both sign and word recognition. PMID:24860539

Dynamic Model Averaging in Large Model Spaces Using Dynamic Occam's Window.

PubMed

Onorante, Luca; Raftery, Adrian E

2016-01-01

Bayesian model averaging has become a widely used approach to accounting for uncertainty about the structural form of the model generating the data. When data arrive sequentially and the generating model can change over time, Dynamic Model Averaging (DMA) extends model averaging to deal with this situation. Often in macroeconomics, however, many candidate explanatory variables are available and the number of possible models becomes too large for DMA to be applied in its original form. We propose a new method for this situation which allows us to perform DMA without considering the whole model space, but using a subset of models and dynamically optimizing the choice of models at each point in time. This yields a dynamic form of Occam's window. We evaluate the method in the context of the problem of nowcasting GDP in the Euro area. We find that its forecasting performance compares well with that of other methods.

Effects of the teach-model-coach-review instructional approach on caregiver use of language support strategies and children's expressive language skills.

PubMed

Roberts, Megan Y; Kaiser, Ann P; Wolfe, Cathy E; Bryant, Julie D; Spidalieri, Alexandria M

2014-10-01

In this study, the authors examined the effects of the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach on caregivers' use of four enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) language support strategies and on their children's use of expressive language. Four caregiver-child dyads participated in a single-subject, multiple-baseline study. Children were between 24 and 42 months of age and had language impairment. Interventionists used the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach to teach caregivers to use matched turns, expansions, time delays, and milieu teaching prompts during 24 individualized clinic sessions. Caregiver use of each EMT language support strategy and child use of communication targets were the dependent variables. The caregivers demonstrated increases in their use of each EMT language support strategy after instruction. Generalization and maintenance of strategy use to the home was limited, indicating that teaching across routines is necessary to achieve maximal outcomes. All children demonstrated gains in their use of communication targets and in their performance on norm-referenced measures of language. The results indicate that the Teach-Model-Coach-Review instructional approach resulted in increased use of EMT language support strategies by caregivers. Caregiver use of these strategies was associated with positive changes in child language skills.

Conversion of HSPF Legacy Model to a Platform-Independent, Open-Source Language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heaphy, R. T.; Burke, M. P.; Love, J. T.

2015-12-01

Since its initial development over 30 years ago, the Hydrologic Simulation Program - FORTAN (HSPF) model has been used worldwide to support water quality planning and management. In the United States, HSPF receives widespread endorsement as a regulatory tool at all levels of government and is a core component of the EPA's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) system, which was developed to support nationwide Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) analysis. However, the model's legacy code and data management systems have limitations in their ability to integrate with modern software, hardware, and leverage parallel computing, which have left voids in optimization, pre-, and post-processing tools. Advances in technology and our scientific understanding of environmental processes that have occurred over the last 30 years mandate that upgrades be made to HSPF to allow it to evolve and continue to be a premiere tool for water resource planners. This work aims to mitigate the challenges currently facing HSPF through two primary tasks: (1) convert code to a modern widely accepted, open-source, high-performance computing (hpc) code; and (2) convert model input and output files to modern widely accepted, open-source, data model, library, and binary file format. Python was chosen as the new language for the code conversion. It is an interpreted, object-oriented, hpc code with dynamic semantics that has become one of the most popular open-source languages. While python code execution can be slow compared to compiled, statically typed programming languages, such as C and FORTRAN, the integration of Numba (a just-in-time specializing compiler) has allowed this challenge to be overcome. For the legacy model data management conversion, HDF5 was chosen to store the model input and output. The code conversion for HSPF's hydrologic and hydraulic modules has been completed. The converted code has been tested against HSPF's suite of "test" runs and shown

A Fast Variational Approach for Learning Markov Random Field Language Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

the same distribution as n- gram models, but utilize a non-linear neural network pa- rameterization. NLMs have been shown to produce com- petitive...to either resort to local optimiza- tion methods, such as those used in neural lan- guage models, or work with heavily constrained distributions. In...embeddings learned through neural language models. Central to the language modelling problem is the challenge Proceedings of the 32nd International

Dynamics and computation in functional shifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Namikawa, Jun; Hashimoto, Takashi

2004-07-01

We introduce a new type of shift dynamics as an extended model of symbolic dynamics, and investigate the characteristics of shift spaces from the viewpoints of both dynamics and computation. This shift dynamics is called a functional shift, which is defined by a set of bi-infinite sequences of some functions on a set of symbols. To analyse the complexity of functional shifts, we measure them in terms of topological entropy, and locate their languages in the Chomsky hierarchy. Through this study, we argue that considering functional shifts from the viewpoints of both dynamics and computation gives us opposite results about the complexity of systems. We also describe a new class of shift spaces whose languages are not recursively enumerable.

Concurrent extensions to the FORTRAN language for parallel programming of computational fluid dynamics algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weeks, Cindy Lou

1986-01-01

Experiments were conducted at NASA Ames Research Center to define multi-tasking software requirements for multiple-instruction, multiple-data stream (MIMD) computer architectures. The focus was on specifying solutions for algorithms in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The program objectives were to allow researchers to produce usable parallel application software as soon as possible after acquiring MIMD computer equipment, to provide researchers with an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use parallel software language which could be implemented on several different MIMD machines, and to enable researchers to list preferred design specifications for future MIMD computer architectures. Analysis of CFD algorithms indicated that extensions of an existing programming language, adaptable to new computer architectures, provided the best solution to meeting program objectives. The CoFORTRAN Language was written in response to these objectives and to provide researchers a means to experiment with parallel software solutions to CFD algorithms on machines with parallel architectures.

Language Management Theory as a Basis for the Dynamic Concept of EU Language Law

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dovalil, Vít

2015-01-01

Language law is a tool used to manage problems of linguistic diversity in the EU. The paper analyzes the processes in which language law is found in the discursive practice of agents addressing the Court of Justice of the European Union with their language problems. The theoretical-methodological basis for the research is Language Management…

Disentangling early language development: modeling lexical and grammatical acquisition using an extension of case-study methodology.

PubMed

Robinson, B F; Mervis, C B

1998-03-01

The early lexical and grammatical development of 1 male child is examined with growth curves and dynamic-systems modeling procedures. Lexical-development described a pattern of logistic growth (R2 = .98). Lexical and plural development shared the following characteristics: Plural growth began only after a threshold was reached in vocabulary size; lexical growth slowed as plural growth increased. As plural use reached full mastery, lexical growth began again to increase. It was hypothesized that a precursor model (P. van Geert, 1991) would fit these data. Subsequent testing indicated that the precursor model, modified to incorporate brief yet intensive plural growth, provided a suitable fit. The value of the modified precursor model for the explication of processes implicated in language development is discussed.

Bilingual Language Switching in the Laboratory versus in the Wild: The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Adaptive Language Control

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

For a bilingual human, every utterance requires a choice about which language to use. This choice is commonly regarded as part of general executive control, engaging prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices similarly to many types of effortful task switching. However, although language control within artificial switching paradigms has been heavily studied, the neurobiology of natural switching within socially cued situations has not been characterized. Additionally, although theoretical models address how language control mechanisms adapt to the distinct demands of different interactional contexts, these predictions have not been empirically tested. We used MEG (RRID: NIFINV:nlx_inv_090918) to investigate language switching in multiple contexts ranging from completely artificial to the comprehension of a fully natural bilingual conversation recorded “in the wild.” Our results showed less anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex involvement for more natural switching. In production, voluntary switching did not engage the prefrontal cortex or elicit behavioral switch costs. In comprehension, while laboratory switches recruited executive control areas, fully natural switching within a conversation only engaged auditory cortices. Multivariate pattern analyses revealed that, in production, interlocutor identity was represented in a sustained fashion throughout the different stages of language planning until speech onset. In comprehension, however, a biphasic pattern was observed: interlocutor identity was first represented at the presentation of the interlocutor and then again at the presentation of the auditory word. In all, our findings underscore the importance of ecologically valid experimental paradigms and offer the first neurophysiological characterization of language control in a range of situations simulating real life to various degrees. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Bilingualism is an inherently social phenomenon, interactional context fully determining

A formal approach to the analysis of clinical computer-interpretable guideline modeling languages.

PubMed

Grando, M Adela; Glasspool, David; Fox, John

2012-01-01

To develop proof strategies to formally study the expressiveness of workflow-based languages, and to investigate their applicability to clinical computer-interpretable guideline (CIG) modeling languages. We propose two strategies for studying the expressiveness of workflow-based languages based on a standard set of workflow patterns expressed as Petri nets (PNs) and notions of congruence and bisimilarity from process calculus. Proof that a PN-based pattern P can be expressed in a language L can be carried out semi-automatically. Proof that a language L cannot provide the behavior specified by a PNP requires proof by exhaustion based on analysis of cases and cannot be performed automatically. The proof strategies are generic but we exemplify their use with a particular CIG modeling language, PROforma. To illustrate the method we evaluate the expressiveness of PROforma against three standard workflow patterns and compare our results with a previous similar but informal comparison. We show that the two proof strategies are effective in evaluating a CIG modeling language against standard workflow patterns. We find that using the proposed formal techniques we obtain different results to a comparable previously published but less formal study. We discuss the utility of these analyses as the basis for principled extensions to CIG modeling languages. Additionally we explain how the same proof strategies can be reused to prove the satisfaction of patterns expressed in the declarative language CIGDec. The proof strategies we propose are useful tools for analysing the expressiveness of CIG modeling languages. This study provides good evidence of the benefits of applying formal methods of proof over semi-formal ones. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language and emotions: emotional Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

PubMed

Perlovsky, Leonid

2009-01-01

An emotional version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that differences in language emotionalities influence differences among cultures no less than conceptual differences. Conceptual contents of languages and cultures to significant extent are determined by words and their semantic differences; these could be borrowed among languages and exchanged among cultures. Emotional differences, as suggested in the paper, are related to grammar and mostly cannot be borrowed. The paper considers conceptual and emotional mechanisms of language along with their role in the mind and cultural evolution. Language evolution from primordial undifferentiated animal cries is discussed: while conceptual contents increase, emotional reduced. Neural mechanisms of these processes are suggested as well as their mathematical models: the knowledge instinct, the dual model connecting language and cognition, neural modeling fields. Mathematical results are related to cognitive science, linguistics, and psychology. Experimental evidence and theoretical arguments are discussed. Dynamics of the hierarchy-heterarchy of human minds and cultures is formulated using mean-field approach and approximate equations are obtained. The knowledge instinct operating in the mind heterarchy leads to mechanisms of differentiation and synthesis determining ontological development and cultural evolution. These mathematical models identify three types of cultures: "conceptual" pragmatic cultures in which emotionality of language is reduced and differentiation overtakes synthesis resulting in fast evolution at the price of uncertainty of values, self doubts, and internal crises; "traditional-emotional" cultures where differentiation lags behind synthesis, resulting in cultural stability at the price of stagnation; and "multi-cultural" societies combining fast cultural evolution and stability. Unsolved problems and future theoretical and experimental directions are discussed.

Exploring social structure effect on language evolution based on a computational model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gong, Tao; Minett, James; Wang, William

2008-06-01

A compositionality-regularity coevolution model is adopted to explore the effect of social structure on language emergence and maintenance. Based on this model, we explore language evolution in three experiments, and discuss the role of a popular agent in language evolution, the relationship between mutual understanding and social hierarchy, and the effect of inter-community communications and that of simple linguistic features on convergence of communal languages in two communities. This work embodies several important interactions during social learning, and introduces a new approach that manipulates individuals' probabilities to participate in social interactions to study the effect of social structure. We hope it will stimulate further theoretical and empirical explorations on language evolution in a social environment.

Interactions between and among Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners during Collaborative Writing Activities: How Learners Attend to Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walls, Laura

2013-01-01

This study investigates the dynamics in the Spanish classroom between heritage language learner (HLL) dyads, second language learner (L2L) dyads, and mixed HLL-L2L dyads. Specifically, it examines oral, written and embodied discourse that informs our understanding of how learners attend to language. Analysis for this dissertation examined…

Hierarchically Structured Non-Intrusive Sign Language Recognition. Chapter 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zieren, Jorg; Zieren, Jorg; Kraiss, Karl-Friedrich

2007-01-01

This work presents a hierarchically structured approach at the nonintrusive recognition of sign language from a monocular frontal view. Robustness is achieved through sophisticated localization and tracking methods, including a combined EM/CAMSHIFT overlap resolution procedure and the parallel pursuit of multiple hypotheses about hands position and movement. This allows handling of ambiguities and automatically corrects tracking errors. A biomechanical skeleton model and dynamic motion prediction using Kalman filters represents high level knowledge. Classification is performed by Hidden Markov Models. 152 signs from German sign language were recognized with an accuracy of 97.6%.

Developing Interactional Awareness in the Second Language Classroom through Teacher Self-Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Steve

2003-01-01

This paper proposes a process model of reflective practice for second language teachers, designed to facilitate a closer understanding of language use and interactive decision-making. The L2 classroom is portrayed as a dynamic and complex series of inter-related contexts, in which interaction is central to teaching and learning. An understanding…

Symbolic dynamic filtering and language measure for behavior identification of mobile robots.

PubMed

Mallapragada, Goutham; Ray, Asok; Jin, Xin

2012-06-01

This paper presents a procedure for behavior identification of mobile robots, which requires limited or no domain knowledge of the underlying process. While the features of robot behavior are extracted by symbolic dynamic filtering of the observed time series, the behavior patterns are classified based on language measure theory. The behavior identification procedure has been experimentally validated on a networked robotic test bed by comparison with commonly used tools, namely, principal component analysis for feature extraction and Bayesian risk analysis for pattern classification.

SBML-PET-MPI: a parallel parameter estimation tool for Systems Biology Markup Language based models.

PubMed

Zi, Zhike

2011-04-01

Parameter estimation is crucial for the modeling and dynamic analysis of biological systems. However, implementing parameter estimation is time consuming and computationally demanding. Here, we introduced a parallel parameter estimation tool for Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML)-based models (SBML-PET-MPI). SBML-PET-MPI allows the user to perform parameter estimation and parameter uncertainty analysis by collectively fitting multiple experimental datasets. The tool is developed and parallelized using the message passing interface (MPI) protocol, which provides good scalability with the number of processors. SBML-PET-MPI is freely available for non-commercial use at http://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/cms/sbml-pet-mpi.html or http://sites.google.com/site/sbmlpetmpi/.

A high-level language for rule-based modelling.

PubMed

Pedersen, Michael; Phillips, Andrew; Plotkin, Gordon D

2015-01-01

Rule-based languages such as Kappa excel in their support for handling the combinatorial complexities prevalent in many biological systems, including signalling pathways. But Kappa provides little structure for organising rules, and large models can therefore be hard to read and maintain. This paper introduces a high-level, modular extension of Kappa called LBS-κ. We demonstrate the constructs of the language through examples and three case studies: a chemotaxis switch ring, a MAPK cascade, and an insulin signalling pathway. We then provide a formal definition of LBS-κ through an abstract syntax and a translation to plain Kappa. The translation is implemented in a compiler tool which is available as a web application. We finally demonstrate how to increase the expressivity of LBS-κ through embedded scripts in a general-purpose programming language, a technique which we view as generally applicable to other domain specific languages.

A High-Level Language for Rule-Based Modelling

PubMed Central

Pedersen, Michael; Phillips, Andrew; Plotkin, Gordon D.

2015-01-01

Rule-based languages such as Kappa excel in their support for handling the combinatorial complexities prevalent in many biological systems, including signalling pathways. But Kappa provides little structure for organising rules, and large models can therefore be hard to read and maintain. This paper introduces a high-level, modular extension of Kappa called LBS-κ. We demonstrate the constructs of the language through examples and three case studies: a chemotaxis switch ring, a MAPK cascade, and an insulin signalling pathway. We then provide a formal definition of LBS-κ through an abstract syntax and a translation to plain Kappa. The translation is implemented in a compiler tool which is available as a web application. We finally demonstrate how to increase the expressivity of LBS-κ through embedded scripts in a general-purpose programming language, a technique which we view as generally applicable to other domain specific languages. PMID:26043208

Cortical dynamics and subcortical signatures of motor-language coupling in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Melloni, Margherita; Sedeño, Lucas; Hesse, Eugenia; García-Cordero, Indira; Mikulan, Ezequiel; Plastino, Angelo; Marcotti, Aida; López, José David; Bustamante, Catalina; Lopera, Francisco; Pineda, David; García, Adolfo M; Manes, Facundo; Trujillo, Natalia; Ibáñez, Agustín

2015-07-08

Impairments of action language have been documented in early stage Parkinson's disease (EPD). The action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE) paradigm has revealed that EPD involves deficits to integrate action-verb processing and ongoing motor actions. Recent studies suggest that an abolished ACE in EPD reflects a cortico-subcortical disruption, and recent neurocognitive models highlight the role of the basal ganglia (BG) in motor-language coupling. Building on such breakthroughs, we report the first exploration of convergent cortical and subcortical signatures of ACE in EPD patients and matched controls. Specifically, we combined cortical recordings of the motor potential, functional connectivity measures, and structural analysis of the BG through voxel-based morphometry. Relative to controls, EPD patients exhibited an impaired ACE, a reduced motor potential, and aberrant frontotemporal connectivity. Furthermore, motor potential abnormalities during the ACE task were predicted by overall BG volume and atrophy. These results corroborate that motor-language coupling is mainly subserved by a cortico-subcortical network including the BG as a key hub. They also evince that action-verb processing may constitute a neurocognitive marker of EPD. Our findings suggest that research on the relationship between language and motor domains is crucial to develop models of motor cognition as well as diagnostic and intervention strategies.

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence from Word Segmentation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-01-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's "cognitive plausibility." We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition…

A computational language approach to modeling prose recall in schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Rosenstein, Mark; Diaz-Asper, Catherine; Foltz, Peter W.; Elvevåg, Brita

2014-01-01

Many cortical disorders are associated with memory problems. In schizophrenia, verbal memory deficits are a hallmark feature. However, the exact nature of this deficit remains elusive. Modeling aspects of language features used in memory recall have the potential to provide means for measuring these verbal processes. We employ computational language approaches to assess time-varying semantic and sequential properties of prose recall at various retrieval intervals (immediate, 30 min and 24 h later) in patients with schizophrenia, unaffected siblings and healthy unrelated control participants. First, we model the recall data to quantify the degradation of performance with increasing retrieval interval and the effect of diagnosis (i.e., group membership) on performance. Next we model the human scoring of recall performance using an n-gram language sequence technique, and then with a semantic feature based on Latent Semantic Analysis. These models show that automated analyses of the recalls can produce scores that accurately mimic human scoring. The final analysis addresses the validity of this approach by ascertaining the ability to predict group membership from models built on the two classes of language features. Taken individually, the semantic feature is most predictive, while a model combining the features improves accuracy of group membership prediction slightly above the semantic feature alone as well as over the human rating approach. We discuss the implications for cognitive neuroscience of such a computational approach in exploring the mechanisms of prose recall. PMID:24709122

Internal and external dynamics in language: evidence from verb regularity in a historical corpus of English.

PubMed

Cuskley, Christine F; Pugliese, Martina; Castellano, Claudio; Colaiori, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca

2014-01-01

Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language.

Internal and External Dynamics in Language: Evidence from Verb Regularity in a Historical Corpus of English

PubMed Central

Cuskley, Christine F.; Pugliese, Martina; Castellano, Claudio; Colaiori, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca

2014-01-01

Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language. PMID:25084006

Imitative Modeling as a Theoretical Base for Instructing Language-Disordered Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtright, John A.; Courtright, Illene C.

1976-01-01

A modification of A. Bandura's social learning theory (imitative modeling) was employed as a theoretical base for language instruction with eight language disordered children (5 to 10 years old). (Author/SBH)

Dynamic assessment of word learning skills of pre-school children with primary language impairment.

PubMed

Camilleri, Bernard; Law, James

2014-10-01

Dynamic assessment has been shown to have considerable theoretical and clinical significance in the assessment of socially disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse children. In this study it is used to enhance assessment of pre-school children with primary language impairment. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a dynamic assessment (DA) has the potential to enhance the predictive capacity of a static measure of receptive vocabulary in pre-school children. Forty pre-school children were assessed using the static British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS), a DA of word learning potential and an assessment of non-verbal cognitive ability. Thirty-seven children were followed up 6 months later and re-assessed using the BPVS. Although the predictive capacity of the static measure was found to be substantial, the DA increased this significantly especially for children with static scores below the 25th centile. The DA of children's word learning has the potential to add value to the static assessment of the child with low language skills, to predict subsequent receptive vocabulary skills and to increase the chance of correctly identifying children in need of ongoing support.

Modelling Holocene peatland and permafrost dynamics with the LPJ-GUESS dynamic vegetation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaudhary, Nitin; Miller, Paul A.; Smith, Benjamin

2016-04-01

Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are an important platform to study past, present and future vegetation patterns together with associated biogeochemical cycles and climate feedbacks (e.g. Sitch et al. 2008, Smith et al. 2001). However, very few attempts have been made to simulate peatlands using DGVMs (Kleinen et al. 2012, Tang et al. 2015, Wania et al. 2009a). In the present study, we have improved the peatland dynamics in the state-of-the-art dynamic vegetation model (LPJ-GUESS) in order to understand the long-term evolution of northern peatland ecosystems and to assess the effect of changing climate on peatland carbon balance. We combined a dynamic multi-layer approach (Frolking et al. 2010, Hilbert et al. 2000) with soil freezing-thawing functionality (Ekici et al. 2015, Wania et al. 2009a) in LPJ-GUESS. The new model is named LPJ-GUESS Peatland (LPJ-GUESS-P) (Chaudhary et al. in prep). The model was calibrated and tested at the sub-arctic mire in Stordalen, Sweden, and the model was able to capture the reported long-term vegetation dynamics and peat accumulation patterns in the mire (Kokfelt et al. 2010). For evaluation, the model was run at 13 grid points across a north to south transect in Europe. The modelled peat accumulation values were found to be consistent with the published data for each grid point (Loisel et al. 2014). Finally, a series of additional experiments were carried out to investigate the vulnerability of high-latitude peatlands to climate change. We find that the Stordalen mire will sequester more carbon in the future due to milder and wetter climate conditions, longer growing seasons, and the carbon fertilization effect. References: - Chaudhary et al. (in prep.). Modelling Holocene peatland and permafrost dynamics with the LPJ-GUESS dynamic vegetation model - Ekici A, et al. 2015. Site-level model intercomparison of high latitude and high altitude soil thermal dynamics in tundra and barren landscapes. The Cryosphere 9: 1343

A graphical language for reliability model generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howell, Sandra V.; Bavuso, Salvatore J.; Haley, Pamela J.

1990-01-01

A graphical interface capability of the hybrid automated reliability predictor (HARP) is described. The graphics-oriented (GO) module provides the user with a graphical language for modeling system failure modes through the selection of various fault tree gates, including sequence dependency gates, or by a Markov chain. With this graphical input language, a fault tree becomes a convenient notation for describing a system. In accounting for any sequence dependencies, HARP converts the fault-tree notation to a complex stochastic process that is reduced to a Markov chain which it can then solve for system reliability. The graphics capability is available for use on an IBM-compatible PC, a Sun, and a VAX workstation. The GO module is written in the C programming language and uses the Graphical Kernel System (GKS) standard for graphics implementation. The PC, VAX, and Sun versions of the HARP GO module are currently in beta-testing.

Languages of Grief: a model for understanding the expressions of the bereaved

PubMed Central

Corless, Inge B.; Limbo, Rana; Bousso, Regina Szylit; Wrenn, Robert L.; Head, David; Lickiss, Norelle; Wass, Hannelore

2014-01-01

The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the key features of the expressions of grief. Grief is a response to loss or anticipated loss. Although universal, its oral and nonverbal expression varies across cultures and individuals. Loss is produced by an event perceived to be negative to varying degrees by the individuals involved and has the potential to trigger long-term changes in a person's cognitions and relationships. The languages used by the bereaved to express grief differ from the language used by professionals, creating dissonance between the two. Data were obtained from English language Medline and CINAHL databases, from professional and personal experiences, interviews with experts, and exploration of cemetery memorials. Blog websites and social networks provided additional materials for further refinement of the model. Content analysis of the materials and agreement by the authors as to the themes resulted in the development of the model. To bridge the gap between professional language and that used by the bereaved, a Languages of Grief model was developed consisting of four Modes of Expression, four Types of Language, plus three Contingent Factors. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for comprehending the grief of the individual, contributing to clinical understanding, and fruitful exploration by professionals in better understanding the use of languages by the bereaved. Attention to the Modes of Expression, Types of Language, and Contingent Factors provides the professional with a richer understanding of the grieving individual, a step in providing appropriate support to the bereaved. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for application to discrete occurrences with the goal of understanding grief from the perspective of the bereaved. PMID:25750773

Languages of Grief: a model for understanding the expressions of the bereaved.

PubMed

Corless, Inge B; Limbo, Rana; Bousso, Regina Szylit; Wrenn, Robert L; Head, David; Lickiss, Norelle; Wass, Hannelore

2014-01-01

The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the key features of the expressions of grief. Grief is a response to loss or anticipated loss. Although universal, its oral and nonverbal expression varies across cultures and individuals. Loss is produced by an event perceived to be negative to varying degrees by the individuals involved and has the potential to trigger long-term changes in a person's cognitions and relationships. The languages used by the bereaved to express grief differ from the language used by professionals, creating dissonance between the two. Data were obtained from English language Medline and CINAHL databases, from professional and personal experiences, interviews with experts, and exploration of cemetery memorials. Blog websites and social networks provided additional materials for further refinement of the model. Content analysis of the materials and agreement by the authors as to the themes resulted in the development of the model. To bridge the gap between professional language and that used by the bereaved, a Languages of Grief model was developed consisting of four Modes of Expression, four Types of Language, plus three Contingent Factors. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for comprehending the grief of the individual, contributing to clinical understanding, and fruitful exploration by professionals in better understanding the use of languages by the bereaved. Attention to the Modes of Expression, Types of Language, and Contingent Factors provides the professional with a richer understanding of the grieving individual, a step in providing appropriate support to the bereaved. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for application to discrete occurrences with the goal of understanding grief from the perspective of the bereaved.

Modeling Educational Content: The Cognitive Approach of the PALO Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez-Artacho, Miguel; Verdejo Maillo, M. Felisa

2004-01-01

This paper presents a reference framework to describe educational material. It introduces the PALO Language as a cognitive based approach to Educational Modeling Languages (EML). In accordance with recent trends for reusability and interoperability in Learning Technologies, EML constitutes an evolution of the current content-centered…

Applying the Flipped Classroom Model to English Language Arts Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Carl A., Ed.; Moran, Clarice M., Ed.

2017-01-01

The flipped classroom method, particularly when used with digital video, has recently attracted many supporters within the education field. Now more than ever, language arts educators can benefit tremendously from incorporating flipped classroom techniques into their curriculum. "Applying the Flipped Classroom Model to English Language Arts…

Integration agent-based models and GIS as a virtual urban dynamic laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Peng; Liu, Miaolong

2007-06-01

Based on the Agent-based Model and spatial data model, a tight-coupling integrating method of GIS and Agent-based Model (ABM) is to be discussed in this paper. The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena such as urban dynamic. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, the agent-based model and spatial data model are discussed, and then the relationships affecting spatial data model and agent-based process models interaction. After that, a realistic crowd flow simulation experiment is presented. Using some tools provided by general GIS systems and a few specific programming languages, a new software system integrating GIS and MAS as a virtual laboratory applicable for simulating pedestrian flows in a crowd activity centre has been developed successfully. Under the environment supported by the software system, as an applicable case, a dynamic evolution process of the pedestrian's flows (dispersed process for the spectators) in a crowds' activity center - The Shanghai Stadium has been simulated successfully. At the end of the paper, some new research problems have been pointed out for the future.

Brain and Language: Evidence for Neural Multifunctionality

PubMed Central

Cahana-Amitay, Dalia; Albert, Martin L.

2014-01-01

This review paper presents converging evidence from studies of brain damage and longitudinal studies of language in aging which supports the following thesis: the neural basis of language can best be understood by the concept of neural multifunctionality. In this paper the term “neural multifunctionality” refers to incorporation of nonlinguistic functions into language models of the intact brain, reflecting a multifunctional perspective whereby a constant and dynamic interaction exists among neural networks subserving cognitive, affective, and praxic functions with neural networks specialized for lexical retrieval, sentence comprehension, and discourse processing, giving rise to language as we know it. By way of example, we consider effects of executive system functions on aspects of semantic processing among persons with and without aphasia, as well as the interaction of executive and language functions among older adults. We conclude by indicating how this multifunctional view of brain-language relations extends to the realm of language recovery from aphasia, where evidence of the influence of nonlinguistic factors on the reshaping of neural circuitry for aphasia rehabilitation is clearly emerging. PMID:25009368

Brain and language: evidence for neural multifunctionality.

PubMed

Cahana-Amitay, Dalia; Albert, Martin L

2014-01-01

This review paper presents converging evidence from studies of brain damage and longitudinal studies of language in aging which supports the following thesis: the neural basis of language can best be understood by the concept of neural multifunctionality. In this paper the term "neural multifunctionality" refers to incorporation of nonlinguistic functions into language models of the intact brain, reflecting a multifunctional perspective whereby a constant and dynamic interaction exists among neural networks subserving cognitive, affective, and praxic functions with neural networks specialized for lexical retrieval, sentence comprehension, and discourse processing, giving rise to language as we know it. By way of example, we consider effects of executive system functions on aspects of semantic processing among persons with and without aphasia, as well as the interaction of executive and language functions among older adults. We conclude by indicating how this multifunctional view of brain-language relations extends to the realm of language recovery from aphasia, where evidence of the influence of nonlinguistic factors on the reshaping of neural circuitry for aphasia rehabilitation is clearly emerging.

A Neural Model for Language and Speech.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buckingham, Hugh W., Jr.; Hollien, Harry

1978-01-01

A neural model in the form of a servo-mechanism is developed to account for certain aspects of language and speech in the human nervous system. Emphasis is placed on encoding processes as well as on-going feedback during production. (SW)

Brain. Conscious and Unconscious Mechanisms of Cognition, Emotions, and Language

PubMed Central

Perlovsky, Leonid; Ilin, Roman

2012-01-01

Conscious and unconscious brain mechanisms, including cognition, emotions and language are considered in this review. The fundamental mechanisms of cognition include interactions between bottom-up and top-down signals. The modeling of these interactions since the 1960s is briefly reviewed, analyzing the ubiquitous difficulty: incomputable combinatorial complexity (CC). Fundamental reasons for CC are related to the Gödel’s difficulties of logic, a most fundamental mathematical result of the 20th century. Many scientists still “believed” in logic because, as the review discusses, logic is related to consciousness; non-logical processes in the brain are unconscious. CC difficulty is overcome in the brain by processes “from vague-unconscious to crisp-conscious” (representations, plans, models, concepts). These processes are modeled by dynamic logic, evolving from vague and unconscious representations toward crisp and conscious thoughts. We discuss experimental proofs and relate dynamic logic to simulators of the perceptual symbol system. “From vague to crisp” explains interactions between cognition and language. Language is mostly conscious, whereas cognition is only rarely so; this clarifies much about the mind that might seem mysterious. All of the above involve emotions of a special kind, aesthetic emotions related to knowledge and to cognitive dissonances. Cognition-language-emotional mechanisms operate throughout the hierarchy of the mind and create all higher mental abilities. The review discusses cognitive functions of the beautiful, sublime, music. PMID:24961270

Corpus-Based Optimization of Language Models Derived from Unification Grammars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rayner, Manny; Hockey, Beth Ann; James, Frankie; Bratt, Harry; Bratt, Elizabeth O.; Gawron, Mark; Goldwater, Sharon; Dowding, John; Bhagat, Amrita

2000-01-01

We describe a technique which makes it feasible to improve the performance of a language model derived from a manually constructed unification grammar, using low-quality untranscribed speech data and a minimum of human annotation. The method is on a medium-vocabulary spoken language command and control task.

New levels of language processing complexity and organization revealed by granger causation.

PubMed

Gow, David W; Caplan, David N

2012-01-01

Granger causation analysis of high spatiotemporal resolution reconstructions of brain activation offers a new window on the dynamic interactions between brain areas that support language processing. Premised on the observation that causes both precede and uniquely predict their effects, this approach provides an intuitive, model-free means of identifying directed causal interactions in the brain. It requires the analysis of all non-redundant potentially interacting signals, and has shown that even "early" processes such as speech perception involve interactions of many areas in a strikingly large network that extends well beyond traditional left hemisphere perisylvian cortex that play out over hundreds of milliseconds. In this paper we describe this technique and review several general findings that reframe the way we think about language processing and brain function in general. These include the extent and complexity of language processing networks, the central role of interactive processing dynamics, the role of processing hubs where the input from many distinct brain regions are integrated, and the degree to which task requirements and stimulus properties influence processing dynamics and inform our understanding of "language-specific" localized processes.

Modeling Languages Refine Vehicle Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2009-01-01

Cincinnati, Ohio s TechnoSoft Inc. is a leading provider of object-oriented modeling and simulation technology used for commercial and defense applications. With funding from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts issued by Langley Research Center, the company continued development on its adaptive modeling language, or AML, originally created for the U.S. Air Force. TechnoSoft then created what is now known as its Integrated Design and Engineering Analysis Environment, or IDEA, which can be used to design a variety of vehicles and machinery. IDEA's customers include clients in green industries, such as designers for power plant exhaust filtration systems and wind turbines.

Dynamic Model Averaging in Large Model Spaces Using Dynamic Occam’s Window*

PubMed Central

Onorante, Luca; Raftery, Adrian E.

2015-01-01

Bayesian model averaging has become a widely used approach to accounting for uncertainty about the structural form of the model generating the data. When data arrive sequentially and the generating model can change over time, Dynamic Model Averaging (DMA) extends model averaging to deal with this situation. Often in macroeconomics, however, many candidate explanatory variables are available and the number of possible models becomes too large for DMA to be applied in its original form. We propose a new method for this situation which allows us to perform DMA without considering the whole model space, but using a subset of models and dynamically optimizing the choice of models at each point in time. This yields a dynamic form of Occam’s window. We evaluate the method in the context of the problem of nowcasting GDP in the Euro area. We find that its forecasting performance compares well with that of other methods. PMID:26917859

Innovating Education with an Educational Modeling Language: Two Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sloep, Peter B.; van Bruggen, Jan; Tattersall, Colin; Vogten, Hubert; Koper, Rob; Brouns, Francis; van Rosmalen, Peter

2006-01-01

The intent of this study was to investigate how to maximize the chances of success of an educational innovation--specifically one based on the implementation of the educational modeling language called EML. This language is both technically and organizationally demanding. Two different implementation cases were investigated, one situated in an…

Construction of dynamic stochastic simulation models using knowledge-based techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, M. Douglas; Shiva, Sajjan G.

1990-01-01

Over the past three decades, computer-based simulation models have proven themselves to be cost-effective alternatives to the more structured deterministic methods of systems analysis. During this time, many techniques, tools and languages for constructing computer-based simulation models have been developed. More recently, advances in knowledge-based system technology have led many researchers to note the similarities between knowledge-based programming and simulation technologies and to investigate the potential application of knowledge-based programming techniques to simulation modeling. The integration of conventional simulation techniques with knowledge-based programming techniques is discussed to provide a development environment for constructing knowledge-based simulation models. A comparison of the techniques used in the construction of dynamic stochastic simulation models and those used in the construction of knowledge-based systems provides the requirements for the environment. This leads to the design and implementation of a knowledge-based simulation development environment. These techniques were used in the construction of several knowledge-based simulation models including the Advanced Launch System Model (ALSYM).

Knowledge Structure Measures of Reader's Situation Models across Languages: Translation Engenders Richer Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kyung; Clariana, Roy B.

2015-01-01

In order to further validate and extend the application of recent knowledge structure (KS) measures to second language settings, this investigation explores how second language (L2, English) situation models are influenced by first language (L1, Korean) translation tasks. Fifty Korean low proficient English language learners were asked to read an…

LAMMPS framework for dynamic bonding and an application modeling DNA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svaneborg, Carsten

2012-08-01

We have extended the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) to support directional bonds and dynamic bonding. The framework supports stochastic formation of new bonds, breakage of existing bonds, and conversion between bond types. Bond formation can be controlled to limit the maximal functionality of a bead with respect to various bond types. Concomitant with the bond dynamics, angular and dihedral interactions are dynamically introduced between newly connected triplets and quartets of beads, where the interaction type is determined from the local pattern of bead and bond types. When breaking bonds, all angular and dihedral interactions involving broken bonds are removed. The framework allows chemical reactions to be modeled, and use it to simulate a simplistic, coarse-grained DNA model. The resulting DNA dynamics illustrates the power of the present framework. Catalogue identifier: AEME_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEME_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: GNU General Public Licence No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 243 491 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 771 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C++ Computer: Single and multiple core servers Operating system: Linux/Unix/Windows Has the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Yes. The code has been parallelized by the use of MPI directives. RAM: 1 Gb Classification: 16.11, 16.12 Nature of problem: Simulating coarse-grain models capable of chemistry e.g. DNA hybridization dynamics. Solution method: Extending LAMMPS to handle dynamic bonding and directional bonds. Unusual features: Allows bonds to be created and broken while angular and dihedral interactions are kept consistent. Additional comments: The distribution file for this program is approximately 36 Mbytes and therefore is not delivered directly

Rosen's (M,R) system in Unified Modelling Language.

PubMed

Zhang, Ling; Williams, Richard A; Gatherer, Derek

2016-01-01

Robert Rosen's (M,R) system is an abstract biological network architecture that is allegedly non-computable on a Turing machine. If (M,R) is truly non-computable, there are serious implications for the modelling of large biological networks in computer software. A body of work has now accumulated addressing Rosen's claim concerning (M,R) by attempting to instantiate it in various software systems. However, a conclusive refutation has remained elusive, principally since none of the attempts to date have unambiguously avoided the critique that they have altered the properties of (M,R) in the coding process, producing merely approximate simulations of (M,R) rather than true computational models. In this paper, we use the Unified Modelling Language (UML), a diagrammatic notation standard, to express (M,R) as a system of objects having attributes, functions and relations. We believe that this instantiates (M,R) in such a way than none of the original properties of the system are corrupted in the process. Crucially, we demonstrate that (M,R) as classically represented in the relational biology literature is implicitly a UML communication diagram. Furthermore, since UML is formally compatible with object-oriented computing languages, instantiation of (M,R) in UML strongly implies its computability in object-oriented coding languages. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A phenomenological view of language shift.

PubMed

Tsitsipis, Lukas D

2004-01-01

Sociolinguistic studies of language shift have in their majority framed their research object in a horizon of theoretically received variables such as class, ethnicity, locality, attitudes etc. In spite of a limited usefulness of such conceptual variables, and of a recently emerging focus on agency, negotiation, and praxis the best results we obtain have not questioned in a coherent and theoretically sound manner the continuing hegemony of mechanistic-metaphorical models (language death, language suicide). In this paper I propose to examine language shift as a multifaceted phenomenon, joining in this respect work by other linguistic anthropologists researching similar areas. I specifically argue that by replacing vertical concepts such as age and generation, and dichotomous logics such as center and periphery with phenomenologically inspired concepts such as typifications, consociateship, contemporariness, and stream of consciousness we are in a better position to generalize about language shift dynamics. Data for this work is derived primarily from the Albanian speech communities of modern Greece, but also from other communities for comparative purposes.

Reframing the Debate on Language Separation: Toward a Vision for Translanguaging Pedagogies in the Dual Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Deborah K.; Martínez, Ramón Antontio; Mateus, Suzanne G.; Henderson, Kathryn

2014-01-01

The policy of strict separation of languages for academic instruction dominates dual language bilingual education programming. This article explores the dynamic bilingual practices of two experienced bilingual teachers in a two-way dual language public school in Texas and contributes to current research problematizing language separation. Data…

Seamless Language Learning: Second Language Learning with Social Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Chai, Ching Sing; Aw, Guat Poh

2017-01-01

This conceptual paper describes a language learning model that applies social media to foster contextualized and connected language learning in communities. The model emphasizes weaving together different forms of language learning activities that take place in different learning contexts to achieve seamless language learning. it promotes social…

Robust model selection and the statistical classification of languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García, J. E.; González-López, V. A.; Viola, M. L. L.

2012-10-01

In this paper we address the problem of model selection for the set of finite memory stochastic processes with finite alphabet, when the data is contaminated. We consider m independent samples, with more than half of them being realizations of the same stochastic process with law Q, which is the one we want to retrieve. We devise a model selection procedure such that for a sample size large enough, the selected process is the one with law Q. Our model selection strategy is based on estimating relative entropies to select a subset of samples that are realizations of the same law. Although the procedure is valid for any family of finite order Markov models, we will focus on the family of variable length Markov chain models, which include the fixed order Markov chain model family. We define the asymptotic breakdown point (ABDP) for a model selection procedure, and we show the ABDP for our procedure. This means that if the proportion of contaminated samples is smaller than the ABDP, then, as the sample size grows our procedure selects a model for the process with law Q. We also use our procedure in a setting where we have one sample conformed by the concatenation of sub-samples of two or more stochastic processes, with most of the subsamples having law Q. We conducted a simulation study. In the application section we address the question of the statistical classification of languages according to their rhythmic features using speech samples. This is an important open problem in phonology. A persistent difficulty on this problem is that the speech samples correspond to several sentences produced by diverse speakers, corresponding to a mixture of distributions. The usual procedure to deal with this problem has been to choose a subset of the original sample which seems to best represent each language. The selection is made by listening to the samples. In our application we use the full dataset without any preselection of samples. We apply our robust methodology estimating

Modeling languages for biochemical network simulation: reaction vs equation based approaches.

PubMed

Wiechert, Wolfgang; Noack, Stephan; Elsheikh, Atya

2010-01-01

Biochemical network modeling and simulation is an essential task in any systems biology project. The systems biology markup language (SBML) was established as a standardized model exchange language for mechanistic models. A specific strength of SBML is that numerous tools for formulating, processing, simulation and analysis of models are freely available. Interestingly, in the field of multidisciplinary simulation, the problem of model exchange between different simulation tools occurred much earlier. Several general modeling languages like Modelica have been developed in the 1990s. Modelica enables an equation based modular specification of arbitrary hierarchical differential algebraic equation models. Moreover, libraries for special application domains can be rapidly developed. This contribution compares the reaction based approach of SBML with the equation based approach of Modelica and explains the specific strengths of both tools. Several biological examples illustrating essential SBML and Modelica concepts are given. The chosen criteria for tool comparison are flexibility for constraint specification, different modeling flavors, hierarchical, modular and multidisciplinary modeling. Additionally, support for spatially distributed systems, event handling and network analysis features is discussed. As a major result it is shown that the choice of the modeling tool has a strong impact on the expressivity of the specified models but also strongly depends on the requirements of the application context.

Bellman’s GAP—a language and compiler for dynamic programming in sequence analysis

PubMed Central

Sauthoff, Georg; Möhl, Mathias; Janssen, Stefan; Giegerich, Robert

2013-01-01

Motivation: Dynamic programming is ubiquitous in bioinformatics. Developing and implementing non-trivial dynamic programming algorithms is often error prone and tedious. Bellman’s GAP is a new programming system, designed to ease the development of bioinformatics tools based on the dynamic programming technique. Results: In Bellman’s GAP, dynamic programming algorithms are described in a declarative style by tree grammars, evaluation algebras and products formed thereof. This bypasses the design of explicit dynamic programming recurrences and yields programs that are free of subscript errors, modular and easy to modify. The declarative modules are compiled into C++ code that is competitive to carefully hand-crafted implementations. This article introduces the Bellman’s GAP system and its language, GAP-L. It then demonstrates the ease of development and the degree of re-use by creating variants of two common bioinformatics algorithms. Finally, it evaluates Bellman’s GAP as an implementation platform of ‘real-world’ bioinformatics tools. Availability: Bellman’s GAP is available under GPL license from http://bibiserv.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de/bellmansgap. This Web site includes a repository of re-usable modules for RNA folding based on thermodynamics. Contact: robert@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online PMID:23355290

Dynamical Galam model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheon, Taksu; Galam, Serge

2018-06-01

We introduce a model of temporal evolution of political opinions which amounts to a dynamical extension of Galam model in which the proportions of inflexibles are treated as dynamical variables. We find that the critical value of inflexibles in the original Galam model now turns into a fixed point of the system whose stability controls the phase trajectory of the political opinions. The appearance of two phases is found, in which majority-preserving and regime-changing limit cycles are respectively dominant, and the phase transition between them is observed.

cellGPU: Massively parallel simulations of dynamic vertex models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sussman, Daniel M.

2017-10-01

Vertex models represent confluent tissue by polygonal or polyhedral tilings of space, with the individual cells interacting via force laws that depend on both the geometry of the cells and the topology of the tessellation. This dependence on the connectivity of the cellular network introduces several complications to performing molecular-dynamics-like simulations of vertex models, and in particular makes parallelizing the simulations difficult. cellGPU addresses this difficulty and lays the foundation for massively parallelized, GPU-based simulations of these models. This article discusses its implementation for a pair of two-dimensional models, and compares the typical performance that can be expected between running cellGPU entirely on the CPU versus its performance when running on a range of commercial and server-grade graphics cards. By implementing the calculation of topological changes and forces on cells in a highly parallelizable fashion, cellGPU enables researchers to simulate time- and length-scales previously inaccessible via existing single-threaded CPU implementations. Program Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/6j2cj29t3r.1 Licensing provisions: MIT Programming language: CUDA/C++ Nature of problem: Simulations of off-lattice "vertex models" of cells, in which the interaction forces depend on both the geometry and the topology of the cellular aggregate. Solution method: Highly parallelized GPU-accelerated dynamical simulations in which the force calculations and the topological features can be handled on either the CPU or GPU. Additional comments: The code is hosted at https://gitlab.com/dmsussman/cellGPU, with documentation additionally maintained at http://dmsussman.gitlab.io/cellGPUdocumentation

Specifications of insilicoML 1.0: a multilevel biophysical model description language.

PubMed

Asai, Yoshiyuki; Suzuki, Yasuyuki; Kido, Yoshiyuki; Oka, Hideki; Heien, Eric; Nakanishi, Masao; Urai, Takahito; Hagihara, Kenichi; Kurachi, Yoshihisa; Nomura, Taishin

2008-12-01

An extensible markup language format, insilicoML (ISML), version 0.1, describing multi-level biophysical models has been developed and available in the public domain. ISML is fully compatible with CellML 1.0, a model description standard developed by the IUPS Physiome Project, for enhancing knowledge integration and model sharing. This article illustrates the new specifications of ISML 1.0 that largely extend the capability of ISML 0.1. ISML 1.0 can describe various types of mathematical models, including ordinary/partial differential/difference equations representing the dynamics of physiological functions and the geometry of living organisms underlying the functions. ISML 1.0 describes a model using a set of functional elements (modules) each of which can specify mathematical expressions of the functions. Structural and logical relationships between any two modules are specified by edges, which allow modular, hierarchical, and/or network representations of the model. The role of edge-relationships is enriched by key words in order for use in constructing a physiological ontology. The ontology is further improved by the traceability of history of the model's development and by linking between different ISML models stored in the model's database using meta-information. ISML 1.0 is designed to operate with a model database and integrated environments for model development and simulations for knowledge integration and discovery.

A model of language inflection graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukś, Henryk; Farzad, Babak; Cao, Yi

2014-01-01

Inflection graphs are highly complex networks representing relationships between inflectional forms of words in human languages. For so-called synthetic languages, such as Latin or Polish, they have particularly interesting structure due to the abundance of inflectional forms. We construct the simplest form of inflection graphs, namely a bipartite graph in which one group of vertices corresponds to dictionary headwords and the other group to inflected forms encountered in a given text. We, then, study projection of this graph on the set of headwords. The projection decomposes into a large number of connected components, to be called word groups. Distribution of sizes of word group exhibits some remarkable properties, resembling cluster distribution in a lattice percolation near the critical point. We propose a simple model which produces graphs of this type, reproducing the desired component distribution and other topological features.

The Illinois State Interdisciplinary Model for Teaching Languages for Business.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varner, Carson H., Jr.; Whitcomb, Richard O.

This model combines in a team-taught course the study of business and a foreign language. The objective is to give business students a foreign language experience in a relatively brief time and also to offer them a business-oriented introduction to a culture other than their own. Students in business courses are preparing for a career in…

A Model of Competition Among More than Two Languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujie, Ryo; Aihara, Kazuyuki; Masuda, Naoki

2013-04-01

We extend the Abrams-Strogatz model for competition between two languages (Abrams and Strogatz in Nature 424:900, 2003) to the case of n (≥2) competing states (i.e., languages). Although the Abrams-Strogatz model for n=2 can be interpreted as modeling either majority preference or minority aversion, the two mechanisms are distinct when n≥3. We find that the condition for the coexistence of different states is independent of n under the pure majority preference, whereas it depends on n under the pure minority aversion. We also show that the stable coexistence equilibrium and stable monopoly equilibria can be multistable under the minority aversion and not under the majority preference. Furthermore, we obtain the phase diagram of the model when the effects of the majority preference and minority aversion are mixed, under the condition that different states have the same attractiveness. We show that the multistability is a generic property of the model facilitated by large n.

Specifying structural constraints of architectural patterns in the ARCHERY language

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sanchez, Alejandro; HASLab INESC TEC and Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga; Barbosa, Luis S.

ARCHERY is an architectural description language for modelling and reasoning about distributed, heterogeneous and dynamically reconfigurable systems in terms of architectural patterns. The language supports the specification of architectures and their reconfiguration. This paper introduces a language extension for precisely describing the structural design decisions that pattern instances must respect in their (re)configurations. The extension is a propositional modal logic with recursion and nominals referencing components, i.e., a hybrid µ-calculus. Its expressiveness allows specifying safety and liveness constraints, as well as paths and cycles over structures. Refinements of classic architectural patterns are specified.

A High-Level Language for Modeling Algorithms and Their Properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhtar, Sabina; Merz, Stephan; Quinson, Martin

Designers of concurrent and distributed algorithms usually express them using pseudo-code. In contrast, most verification techniques are based on more mathematically-oriented formalisms such as state transition systems. This conceptual gap contributes to hinder the use of formal verification techniques. Leslie Lamport introduced PlusCal, a high-level algorithmic language that has the "look and feel" of pseudo-code, but is equipped with a precise semantics and includes a high-level expression language based on set theory. PlusCal models can be compiled to TLA + and verified using the model checker tlc.

Robot Path Planning in Uncertain Environments: A Language Measure-theoretic Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-01-01

Paper DS-14-1028 to appear in the Special Issue on Stochastic Models, Control and Algorithms in Robotics, ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems...Measurement and Control Robot Path Planning in Uncertain Environments: A Language Measure-theoretic Approach⋆ Devesh K. Jha† Yue Li† Thomas A. Wettergren‡† Asok...algorithm, called ν⋆, that was formulated in the framework of probabilistic finite state automata (PFSA) and language measure from a control -theoretic

Languages in Contemporary Anglophone Caribbean Societies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davids, Melva P.

2013-01-01

The paper Languages in Contemporary Anglophone Caribbean Societies examines how language is treated in Jamaica and other Anglophone Caribbean societies and the effects of a haphazard approach to language planning on the social dynamics of the society as well as the individual. It briefly explores how Language is handled in Francophone or…

Brain-computer interface with language model-electroencephalography fusion for locked-in syndrome.

PubMed

Oken, Barry S; Orhan, Umut; Roark, Brian; Erdogmus, Deniz; Fowler, Andrew; Mooney, Aimee; Peters, Betts; Miller, Meghan; Fried-Oken, Melanie B

2014-05-01

Some noninvasive brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are currently available for locked-in syndrome (LIS) but none have incorporated a statistical language model during text generation. To begin to address the communication needs of individuals with LIS using a noninvasive BCI that involves rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of symbols and a unique classifier with electroencephalography (EEG) and language model fusion. The RSVP Keyboard was developed with several unique features. Individual letters are presented at 2.5 per second. Computer classification of letters as targets or nontargets based on EEG is performed using machine learning that incorporates a language model for letter prediction via Bayesian fusion enabling targets to be presented only 1 to 4 times. Nine participants with LIS and 9 healthy controls were enrolled. After screening, subjects first calibrated the system, and then completed a series of balanced word generation mastery tasks that were designed with 5 incremental levels of difficulty, which increased by selecting phrases for which the utility of the language model decreased naturally. Six participants with LIS and 9 controls completed the experiment. All LIS participants successfully mastered spelling at level 1 and one subject achieved level 5. Six of 9 control participants achieved level 5. Individuals who have incomplete LIS may benefit from an EEG-based BCI system, which relies on EEG classification and a statistical language model. Steps to further improve the system are discussed.

Aligning Grammatical Theories and Language Processing Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Shevaun; Phillips, Colin

2015-01-01

We address two important questions about the relationship between theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics. First, do grammatical theories and language processing models describe separate cognitive systems, or are they accounts of different aspects of the same system? We argue that most evidence is consistent with the one-system view. Second,…

Fusion with Language Models Improves Spelling Accuracy for ERP-based Brain Computer Interface Spellers

PubMed Central

Orhan, Umut; Erdogmus, Deniz; Roark, Brian; Purwar, Shalini; Hild, Kenneth E.; Oken, Barry; Nezamfar, Hooman; Fried-Oken, Melanie

2013-01-01

Event related potentials (ERP) corresponding to a stimulus in electroencephalography (EEG) can be used to detect the intent of a person for brain computer interfaces (BCI). This paradigm is widely utilized to build letter-by-letter text input systems using BCI. Nevertheless using a BCI-typewriter depending only on EEG responses will not be sufficiently accurate for single-trial operation in general, and existing systems utilize many-trial schemes to achieve accuracy at the cost of speed. Hence incorporation of a language model based prior or additional evidence is vital to improve accuracy and speed. In this paper, we study the effects of Bayesian fusion of an n-gram language model with a regularized discriminant analysis ERP detector for EEG-based BCIs. The letter classification accuracies are rigorously evaluated for varying language model orders as well as number of ERP-inducing trials. The results demonstrate that the language models contribute significantly to letter classification accuracy. Specifically, we find that a BCI-speller supported by a 4-gram language model may achieve the same performance using 3-trial ERP classification for the initial letters of the words and using single trial ERP classification for the subsequent ones. Overall, fusion of evidence from EEG and language models yields a significant opportunity to increase the word rate of a BCI based typing system. PMID:22255652

Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning: Change, Stability, and Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waninge, Freerkien; Dörnyei, Zoltán; De Bot, Kees

2014-01-01

Motivation as a variable in L2 development is no longer seen as the stable individual difference factor it was once believed to be: Influenced by process-oriented models and principles, and especially by the growing understanding of how complex dynamic systems work, researchers have been focusing increasingly on the dynamic and changeable nature…

Interactive natural language acquisition in a multi-modal recurrent neural architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinrich, Stefan; Wermter, Stefan

2018-01-01

For the complex human brain that enables us to communicate in natural language, we gathered good understandings of principles underlying language acquisition and processing, knowledge about sociocultural conditions, and insights into activity patterns in the brain. However, we were not yet able to understand the behavioural and mechanistic characteristics for natural language and how mechanisms in the brain allow to acquire and process language. In bridging the insights from behavioural psychology and neuroscience, the goal of this paper is to contribute a computational understanding of appropriate characteristics that favour language acquisition. Accordingly, we provide concepts and refinements in cognitive modelling regarding principles and mechanisms in the brain and propose a neurocognitively plausible model for embodied language acquisition from real-world interaction of a humanoid robot with its environment. In particular, the architecture consists of a continuous time recurrent neural network, where parts have different leakage characteristics and thus operate on multiple timescales for every modality and the association of the higher level nodes of all modalities into cell assemblies. The model is capable of learning language production grounded in both, temporal dynamic somatosensation and vision, and features hierarchical concept abstraction, concept decomposition, multi-modal integration, and self-organisation of latent representations.

Discrete Dynamical Modeling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sandefur, James T.

1991-01-01

Discussed is the process of translating situations involving changing quantities into mathematical relationships. This process, called dynamical modeling, allows students to learn new mathematics while sharpening their algebraic skills. A description of dynamical systems, problem-solving methods, a graphical analysis, and available classroom…

Dynamics in atomic signaling games.

PubMed

Fox, Michael J; Touri, Behrouz; Shamma, Jeff S

2015-07-07

We study an atomic signaling game under stochastic evolutionary dynamics. There are a finite number of players who repeatedly update from a finite number of available languages/signaling strategies. Players imitate the most fit agents with high probability or mutate with low probability. We analyze the long-run distribution of states and show that, for sufficiently small mutation probability, its support is limited to efficient communication systems. We find that this behavior is insensitive to the particular choice of evolutionary dynamic, a property that is due to the game having a potential structure with a potential function corresponding to average fitness. Consequently, the model supports conclusions similar to those found in the literature on language competition. That is, we show that efficient languages eventually predominate the society while reproducing the empirical phenomenon of linguistic drift. The emergence of efficiency in the atomic case can be contrasted with results for non-atomic signaling games that establish the non-negligible possibility of convergence, under replicator dynamics, to states of unbounded efficiency loss. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corruption dynamics model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malafeyev, O. A.; Nemnyugin, S. A.; Rylow, D.; Kolpak, E. P.; Awasthi, Achal

2017-07-01

The corruption dynamics is analyzed by means of the lattice model which is similar to the three-dimensional Ising model. Agents placed at nodes of the corrupt network periodically choose to perfom or not to perform the act of corruption at gain or loss while making decisions based on the process history. The gain value and its dynamics are defined by means of the Markov stochastic process modelling with parameters established in accordance with the influence of external and individual factors on the agent's gain. The model is formulated algorithmically and is studied by means of the computer simulation. Numerical results are obtained which demonstrate asymptotic behaviour of the corruption network under various conditions.

RevBayes: Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference Using Graphical Models and an Interactive Model-Specification Language

PubMed Central

Höhna, Sebastian; Landis, Michael J.

2016-01-01

Programs for Bayesian inference of phylogeny currently implement a unique and fixed suite of models. Consequently, users of these software packages are simultaneously forced to use a number of programs for a given study, while also lacking the freedom to explore models that have not been implemented by the developers of those programs. We developed a new open-source software package, RevBayes, to address these problems. RevBayes is entirely based on probabilistic graphical models, a powerful generic framework for specifying and analyzing statistical models. Phylogenetic-graphical models can be specified interactively in RevBayes, piece by piece, using a new succinct and intuitive language called Rev. Rev is similar to the R language and the BUGS model-specification language, and should be easy to learn for most users. The strength of RevBayes is the simplicity with which one can design, specify, and implement new and complex models. Fortunately, this tremendous flexibility does not come at the cost of slower computation; as we demonstrate, RevBayes outperforms competing software for several standard analyses. Compared with other programs, RevBayes has fewer black-box elements. Users need to explicitly specify each part of the model and analysis. Although this explicitness may initially be unfamiliar, we are convinced that this transparency will improve understanding of phylogenetic models in our field. Moreover, it will motivate the search for improvements to existing methods by brazenly exposing the model choices that we make to critical scrutiny. RevBayes is freely available at http://www.RevBayes.com. [Bayesian inference; Graphical models; MCMC; statistical phylogenetics.] PMID:27235697

Issues for a Model of Language Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamgbose, Ayo

1989-01-01

Examines the following issues as they relate to a model of language planning: (1) types of decisions (policy or implemental, higher- or lower-level, rational or arbitrary); (2) the planning mechanism; (3) the role of fact finding (prepolicy, preimplementation, and intraimplementation); (4) levels of planning; and (5) the nature of status versus…

Applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in Foreign Language Reading: An Investigation with Chinese College English Language Learners

PubMed Central

Han, Feifei

2017-01-01

While some first language (L1) reading models suggest that inefficient word recognition and small working memory tend to inhibit higher-level comprehension processes; the Compensatory Encoding Model maintains that slow word recognition and small working memory do not normally hinder reading comprehension, as readers are able to operate metacognitive strategies to compensate for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation as long as readers process a reading task without time constraint. Although empirical evidence is accumulated for support of the Compensatory Encoding Model in L1 reading, there is lack of research for testing of the Compensatory Encoding Model in foreign language (FL) reading. This research empirically tested the Compensatory Encoding Model in English reading among Chinese college English language learners (ELLs). Two studies were conducted. Study one focused on testing whether reading condition varying time affects the relationship between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension. Students were tested on a computerized English word recognition test, a computerized Operation Span task, and reading comprehension in time constraint and non-time constraint reading. The correlation and regression analyses showed that the strength of association was much stronger between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension in time constraint than that in non-time constraint reading condition. Study two examined whether FL readers were able to operate metacognitive reading strategies as a compensatory way of reading comprehension for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation in non-time constraint reading. The participants were tested on the same computerized English word recognition test and Operation Span test. They were required to think aloud while reading and to complete the comprehension questions. The think-aloud protocols were coded for concurrent use of reading strategies, classified

Applicability of the Compensatory Encoding Model in Foreign Language Reading: An Investigation with Chinese College English Language Learners.

PubMed

Han, Feifei

2017-01-01

While some first language (L1) reading models suggest that inefficient word recognition and small working memory tend to inhibit higher-level comprehension processes; the Compensatory Encoding Model maintains that slow word recognition and small working memory do not normally hinder reading comprehension, as readers are able to operate metacognitive strategies to compensate for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation as long as readers process a reading task without time constraint. Although empirical evidence is accumulated for support of the Compensatory Encoding Model in L1 reading, there is lack of research for testing of the Compensatory Encoding Model in foreign language (FL) reading. This research empirically tested the Compensatory Encoding Model in English reading among Chinese college English language learners (ELLs). Two studies were conducted. Study one focused on testing whether reading condition varying time affects the relationship between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension. Students were tested on a computerized English word recognition test, a computerized Operation Span task, and reading comprehension in time constraint and non-time constraint reading. The correlation and regression analyses showed that the strength of association was much stronger between word recognition, working memory, and reading comprehension in time constraint than that in non-time constraint reading condition. Study two examined whether FL readers were able to operate metacognitive reading strategies as a compensatory way of reading comprehension for inefficient word recognition and working memory limitation in non-time constraint reading. The participants were tested on the same computerized English word recognition test and Operation Span test. They were required to think aloud while reading and to complete the comprehension questions. The think-aloud protocols were coded for concurrent use of reading strategies, classified

Assisted Imitation: First Steps in the Seed Model of Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zukow-Goldring, Patricia

2012-01-01

In this article, I present the theoretical and empirical grounding for the SEED ("situated", culturally "embodied", "emergent", "distributed") model of early language development. A fundamental prerequisite to the emergence of language behavior/communication is a hands-on, active understanding of everyday events (, and ). At the heart of this…

The Future of Whole Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilles, Carol

2006-01-01

Whole language is a dynamic and generative philosophy of education that started as a grass roots teacher movement. Throughout its history it has been lauded worldwide as well as being attacked. This article explores whole language through two lenses. First it examines the history of whole language through the eyes of someone who participated in…

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence From Word Segmentation.

PubMed

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-11-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's cognitive plausibility. We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition model can aim to be cognitively plausible in multiple ways. We discuss these cognitive plausibility checkpoints generally and then apply them to a case study in word segmentation, investigating a promising Bayesian segmentation strategy. We incorporate cognitive plausibility by using an age-appropriate unit of perceptual representation, evaluating the model output in terms of its utility, and incorporating cognitive constraints into the inference process. Our more cognitively plausible model shows a beneficial effect of cognitive constraints on segmentation performance. One interpretation of this effect is as a synergy between the naive theories of language structure that infants may have and the cognitive constraints that limit the fidelity of their inference processes, where less accurate inference approximations are better when the underlying assumptions about how words are generated are less accurate. More generally, these results highlight the utility of incorporating cognitive plausibility more fully into computational models of language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Formulating "Principles of Procedure" for the Foreign Language Classroom: A Framework for Process Model Language Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Villacañas de Castro, Luis S.

2016-01-01

This article aims to apply Stenhouse's process model of curriculum to foreign language (FL) education, a model which is characterized by enacting "principles of procedure" which are specific to the discipline which the school subject belongs to. Rather than to replace or dissolve current approaches to FL teaching and curriculum…

Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) Representation in Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML)

PubMed Central

Lechevalier, D.; Ak, R.; Ferguson, M.; Law, K. H.; Lee, Y.-T. T.; Rachuri, S.

2017-01-01

This paper describes Gaussian process regression (GPR) models presented in predictive model markup language (PMML). PMML is an extensible-markup-language (XML) -based standard language used to represent data-mining and predictive analytic models, as well as pre- and post-processed data. The previous PMML version, PMML 4.2, did not provide capabilities for representing probabilistic (stochastic) machine-learning algorithms that are widely used for constructing predictive models taking the associated uncertainties into consideration. The newly released PMML version 4.3, which includes the GPR model, provides new features: confidence bounds and distribution for the predictive estimations. Both features are needed to establish the foundation for uncertainty quantification analysis. Among various probabilistic machine-learning algorithms, GPR has been widely used for approximating a target function because of its capability of representing complex input and output relationships without predefining a set of basis functions, and predicting a target output with uncertainty quantification. GPR is being employed to various manufacturing data-analytics applications, which necessitates representing this model in a standardized form for easy and rapid employment. In this paper, we present a GPR model and its representation in PMML. Furthermore, we demonstrate a prototype using a real data set in the manufacturing domain. PMID:29202125

Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) Representation in Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML).

PubMed

Park, J; Lechevalier, D; Ak, R; Ferguson, M; Law, K H; Lee, Y-T T; Rachuri, S

2017-01-01

This paper describes Gaussian process regression (GPR) models presented in predictive model markup language (PMML). PMML is an extensible-markup-language (XML) -based standard language used to represent data-mining and predictive analytic models, as well as pre- and post-processed data. The previous PMML version, PMML 4.2, did not provide capabilities for representing probabilistic (stochastic) machine-learning algorithms that are widely used for constructing predictive models taking the associated uncertainties into consideration. The newly released PMML version 4.3, which includes the GPR model, provides new features: confidence bounds and distribution for the predictive estimations. Both features are needed to establish the foundation for uncertainty quantification analysis. Among various probabilistic machine-learning algorithms, GPR has been widely used for approximating a target function because of its capability of representing complex input and output relationships without predefining a set of basis functions, and predicting a target output with uncertainty quantification. GPR is being employed to various manufacturing data-analytics applications, which necessitates representing this model in a standardized form for easy and rapid employment. In this paper, we present a GPR model and its representation in PMML. Furthermore, we demonstrate a prototype using a real data set in the manufacturing domain.

Dynamics simulation and controller interfacing for legged robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reichler, J.A.; Delcomyn, F.

2000-01-01

Dynamics simulation can play a critical role in the engineering of robotic control code, and there exist a variety of strategies both for building physical models and for interacting with these models. This paper presents an approach to dynamics simulation and controller interfacing for legged robots, and contrasts it to existing approaches. The authors describe dynamics algorithms and contact-resolution strategies for multibody articulated mobile robots based on the decoupled tree-structure approach, and present a novel scripting language that provides a unified framework for control-code interfacing, user-interface design, and data analysis. Special emphasis is placed on facilitating the rapid integration ofmore » control algorithms written in a standard object-oriented language (C++), the production of modular, distributed, reusable controllers, and the use of parameterized signal-transmission properties such as delay, sampling rate, and noise.« less

Scaling laws and model of words organization in spoken and written language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bian, Chunhua; Lin, Ruokuang; Zhang, Xiaoyu; Ma, Qianli D. Y.; Ivanov, Plamen Ch.

2016-01-01

A broad range of complex physical and biological systems exhibits scaling laws. The human language is a complex system of words organization. Studies of written texts have revealed intriguing scaling laws that characterize the frequency of words occurrence, rank of words, and growth in the number of distinct words with text length. While studies have predominantly focused on the language system in its written form, such as books, little attention is given to the structure of spoken language. Here we investigate a database of spoken language transcripts and written texts, and we uncover that words organization in both spoken language and written texts exhibits scaling laws, although with different crossover regimes and scaling exponents. We propose a model that provides insight into words organization in spoken language and written texts, and successfully accounts for all scaling laws empirically observed in both language forms.

SBRML: a markup language for associating systems biology data with models.

PubMed

Dada, Joseph O; Spasić, Irena; Paton, Norman W; Mendes, Pedro

2010-04-01

Research in systems biology is carried out through a combination of experiments and models. Several data standards have been adopted for representing models (Systems Biology Markup Language) and various types of relevant experimental data (such as FuGE and those of the Proteomics Standards Initiative). However, until now, there has been no standard way to associate a model and its entities to the corresponding datasets, or vice versa. Such a standard would provide a means to represent computational simulation results as well as to frame experimental data in the context of a particular model. Target applications include model-driven data analysis, parameter estimation, and sharing and archiving model simulations. We propose the Systems Biology Results Markup Language (SBRML), an XML-based language that associates a model with several datasets. Each dataset is represented as a series of values associated with model variables, and their corresponding parameter values. SBRML provides a flexible way of indexing the results to model parameter values, which supports both spreadsheet-like data and multidimensional data cubes. We present and discuss several examples of SBRML usage in applications such as enzyme kinetics, microarray gene expression and various types of simulation results. The XML Schema file for SBRML is available at http://www.comp-sys-bio.org/SBRML under the Academic Free License (AFL) v3.0.

Using Sociocultural Perspectives: The Dynamic Process of Designing and Implementing Class Activities in an Online Japanese Language Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shibakawa, Mayumi

2012-01-01

The study documented the dynamic process of designing and implementing instructional interventions in an online course of Japanese language and culture at a two-year college. The results have impact in three distinct areas: pedagogical, theoretical, and methodological. First, the interventions that encouraged student agency with rich…

The Impact of the "First Language First" Model on Vocabulary Development among Preschool Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Mila

2014-01-01

The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the role of the "First Language First" model for preschool bilingual education in the development of vocabulary depth. The languages studied were Russian (L1) and Hebrew (L2) among bilingual children aged 4-5 years in Israel. According to this model, the children's first language of…

Modeling stroke rehabilitation processes using the Unified Modeling Language (UML).

PubMed

Ferrante, Simona; Bonacina, Stefano; Pinciroli, Francesco

2013-10-01

In organising and providing rehabilitation procedures for stroke patients, the usual need for many refinements makes it inappropriate to attempt rigid standardisation, but greater detail is required concerning workflow. The aim of this study was to build a model of the post-stroke rehabilitation process. The model, implemented in the Unified Modeling Language, was grounded on international guidelines and refined following the clinical pathway adopted at local level by a specialized rehabilitation centre. The model describes the organisation of the rehabilitation delivery and it facilitates the monitoring of recovery during the process. Indeed, a system software was developed and tested to support clinicians in the digital administration of clinical scales. The model flexibility assures easy updating after process evolution. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RevBayes: Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference Using Graphical Models and an Interactive Model-Specification Language.

PubMed

Höhna, Sebastian; Landis, Michael J; Heath, Tracy A; Boussau, Bastien; Lartillot, Nicolas; Moore, Brian R; Huelsenbeck, John P; Ronquist, Fredrik

2016-07-01

Programs for Bayesian inference of phylogeny currently implement a unique and fixed suite of models. Consequently, users of these software packages are simultaneously forced to use a number of programs for a given study, while also lacking the freedom to explore models that have not been implemented by the developers of those programs. We developed a new open-source software package, RevBayes, to address these problems. RevBayes is entirely based on probabilistic graphical models, a powerful generic framework for specifying and analyzing statistical models. Phylogenetic-graphical models can be specified interactively in RevBayes, piece by piece, using a new succinct and intuitive language called Rev. Rev is similar to the R language and the BUGS model-specification language, and should be easy to learn for most users. The strength of RevBayes is the simplicity with which one can design, specify, and implement new and complex models. Fortunately, this tremendous flexibility does not come at the cost of slower computation; as we demonstrate, RevBayes outperforms competing software for several standard analyses. Compared with other programs, RevBayes has fewer black-box elements. Users need to explicitly specify each part of the model and analysis. Although this explicitness may initially be unfamiliar, we are convinced that this transparency will improve understanding of phylogenetic models in our field. Moreover, it will motivate the search for improvements to existing methods by brazenly exposing the model choices that we make to critical scrutiny. RevBayes is freely available at http://www.RevBayes.com [Bayesian inference; Graphical models; MCMC; statistical phylogenetics.]. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Dual Neural Network Model for the Evolution of Speech and Language.

PubMed

Hage, Steffen R; Nieder, Andreas

2016-12-01

Explaining the evolution of speech and language poses one of the biggest challenges in biology. We propose a dual network model that posits a volitional articulatory motor network (VAMN) originating in the prefrontal cortex (PFC; including Broca's area) that cognitively controls vocal output of a phylogenetically conserved primary vocal motor network (PVMN) situated in subcortical structures. By comparing the connections between these two systems in human and nonhuman primate brains, we identify crucial biological preadaptations in monkeys for the emergence of a language system in humans. This model of language evolution explains the exclusiveness of non-verbal communication sounds (e.g., cries) in infants with an immature PFC, as well as the observed emergence of non-linguistic vocalizations in adults after frontal lobe pathologies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of clinical contents model markup language for electronic health records.

PubMed

Yun, Ji-Hyun; Ahn, Sun-Ju; Kim, Yoon

2012-09-01

To develop dedicated markup language for clinical contents models (CCM) to facilitate the active use of CCM in electronic health record systems. Based on analysis of the structure and characteristics of CCM in the clinical domain, we designed extensible markup language (XML) based CCM markup language (CCML) schema manually. CCML faithfully reflects CCM in both the syntactic and semantic aspects. As this language is based on XML, it can be expressed and processed in computer systems and can be used in a technology-neutral way. CCML HAS THE FOLLOWING STRENGTHS: it is machine-readable and highly human-readable, it does not require a dedicated parser, and it can be applied for existing electronic health record systems.

Trends in Programming Languages for Neuroscience Simulations

PubMed Central

Davison, Andrew P.; Hines, Michael L.; Muller, Eilif

2009-01-01

Neuroscience simulators allow scientists to express models in terms of biological concepts, without having to concern themselves with low-level computational details of their implementation. The expressiveness, power and ease-of-use of the simulator interface is critical in efficiently and accurately translating ideas into a working simulation. We review long-term trends in the development of programmable simulator interfaces, and examine the benefits of moving from proprietary, domain-specific languages to modern dynamic general-purpose languages, in particular Python, which provide neuroscientists with an interactive and expressive simulation development environment and easy access to state-of-the-art general-purpose tools for scientific computing. PMID:20198154

Trends in programming languages for neuroscience simulations.

PubMed

Davison, Andrew P; Hines, Michael L; Muller, Eilif

2009-01-01

Neuroscience simulators allow scientists to express models in terms of biological concepts, without having to concern themselves with low-level computational details of their implementation. The expressiveness, power and ease-of-use of the simulator interface is critical in efficiently and accurately translating ideas into a working simulation. We review long-term trends in the development of programmable simulator interfaces, and examine the benefits of moving from proprietary, domain-specific languages to modern dynamic general-purpose languages, in particular Python, which provide neuroscientists with an interactive and expressive simulation development environment and easy access to state-of-the-art general-purpose tools for scientific computing.

Modelling Holocene peatland dynamics with an individual-based dynamic vegetation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaudhary, Nitin; Miller, Paul A.; Smith, Benjamin

2017-05-01

Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) are designed for the study of past, present and future vegetation patterns together with associated biogeochemical cycles and climate feedbacks. However, most DGVMs do not yet have detailed representations of permafrost and non-permafrost peatlands, which are an important store of carbon, particularly at high latitudes. We demonstrate a new implementation of peatland dynamics in a customized Arctic version of the LPJ-GUESS DGVM, simulating the long-term evolution of selected northern peatland ecosystems and assessing the effect of changing climate on peatland carbon balance. Our approach employs a dynamic multi-layer soil with representation of freeze-thaw processes and litter inputs from a dynamically varying mixture of the main peatland plant functional types: mosses, shrubs and graminoids. The model was calibrated and tested for a sub-Arctic mire in Stordalen, Sweden, and validated at a temperate bog site in Mer Bleue, Canada. A regional evaluation of simulated carbon fluxes, hydrology and vegetation dynamics encompassed additional locations spread across Scandinavia. Simulated peat accumulation was found to be generally consistent with published data and the model was able to capture reported long-term vegetation dynamics, water table position and carbon fluxes. A series of sensitivity experiments were carried out to investigate the vulnerability of high-latitude peatlands to climate change. We found that the Stordalen mire may be expected to sequester more carbon in the first half of the 21st century due to milder and wetter climate conditions, a longer growing season, and the CO2 fertilization effect, turning into a carbon source after mid-century because of higher decomposition rates in response to warming soils.

COLD-SAT dynamic model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Neil S.; Bollenbacher, Gary

1992-01-01

This report discusses the development and underlying mathematics of a rigid-body computer model of a proposed cryogenic on-orbit liquid depot storage, acquisition, and transfer spacecraft (COLD-SAT). This model, referred to in this report as the COLD-SAT dynamic model, consists of both a trajectory model and an attitudinal model. All disturbance forces and torques expected to be significant for the actual COLD-SAT spacecraft are modeled to the required degree of accuracy. Control and experimental thrusters are modeled, as well as fluid slosh. The model also computes microgravity disturbance accelerations at any specified point in the spacecraft. The model was developed by using the Boeing EASY5 dynamic analysis package and will run on Apollo, Cray, and other computing platforms.

Spatial Language and the Embedded Listener Model in Parents’ Input to Children

PubMed Central

Ferrara, Katrina; Silva, Malena; Wilson, Colin; Landau, Barbara

2015-01-01

Language is a collaborative act: in order to communicate successfully, speakers must generate utterances that are not only semantically valid, but also sensitive to the knowledge state of the listener. Such sensitivity could reflect use of an “embedded listener model,” where speakers choose utterances on the basis of an internal model of the listeners’ conceptual and linguistic knowledge. In this paper, we ask whether parents’ spatial descriptions incorporate an embedded listener model that reflects their children’s understanding of spatial relations and spatial terms. Adults described the positions of targets in spatial arrays to their children or to the adult experimenter. Arrays were designed so that targets could not be identified unless spatial relationships within the array were encoded and described. Parents of 3–4 year-old children encoded relationships in ways that were well-matched to their children’s level of spatial language. These encodings differed from those of the same relationships in speech to the adult experimenter (Experiment 1). By contrast, parents of individuals with severe spatial impairments (Williams syndrome) did not show clear evidence of sensitivity to their children’s level of spatial language (Experiment 2). The results provide evidence for an embedded listener model in the domain of spatial language, and indicate conditions under which the ability to model listener knowledge may be more challenging. PMID:26717804

Spatial Language and the Embedded Listener Model in Parents' Input to Children.

PubMed

Ferrara, Katrina; Silva, Malena; Wilson, Colin; Landau, Barbara

2016-11-01

Language is a collaborative act: To communicate successfully, speakers must generate utterances that are not only semantically valid but also sensitive to the knowledge state of the listener. Such sensitivity could reflect the use of an "embedded listener model," where speakers choose utterances on the basis of an internal model of the listener's conceptual and linguistic knowledge. In this study, we ask whether parents' spatial descriptions incorporate an embedded listener model that reflects their children's understanding of spatial relations and spatial terms. Adults described the positions of targets in spatial arrays to their children or to the adult experimenter. Arrays were designed so that targets could not be identified unless spatial relationships within the array were encoded and described. Parents of 3-4-year-old children encoded relationships in ways that were well-matched to their children's level of spatial language. These encodings differed from those of the same relationships in speech to the adult experimenter (Experiment 1). In contrast, parents of individuals with severe spatial impairments (Williams syndrome) did not show clear evidence of sensitivity to their children's level of spatial language (Experiment 2). The results provide evidence for an embedded listener model in the domain of spatial language and indicate conditions under which the ability to model listener knowledge may be more challenging. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Biological Analogs for Language Contact Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seliger, Herbert W.

1977-01-01

This article proposes that language contact can be best understood if the entire range of such situations from second language learning to evolution of dialects and creoles is studied within a framework analogical to the symbiosis of living organisms. Language contact is viewed in terms of dynamic evolutionary stages. (CHK)

Natural language modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sharp, J.K.

1997-11-01

This seminar describes a process and methodology that uses structured natural language to enable the construction of precise information requirements directly from users, experts, and managers. The main focus of this natural language approach is to create the precise information requirements and to do it in such a way that the business and technical experts are fully accountable for the results. These requirements can then be implemented using appropriate tools and technology. This requirement set is also a universal learning tool because it has all of the knowledge that is needed to understand a particular process (e.g., expense vouchers, projectmore » management, budget reviews, tax, laws, machine function).« less

The Language Growth of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rojas, Raul; Iglesias, Aquiles

2013-01-01

Although the research literature regarding language growth trajectories is burgeoning, the shape and direction of English Language Learners' (ELLs) language growth trajectories are largely not known. This study used growth curve modeling to determine the shape of ELLs' language growth trajectories across 12,248 oral narrative language samples…

Modeling Climate Dynamically

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Jim; McGehee, Richard

2013-01-01

A dynamical systems approach to energy balance models of climate is presented, focusing on low order, or conceptual, models. Included are global average and latitude-dependent, surface temperature models. The development and analysis of the differential equations and corresponding bifurcation diagrams provides a host of appropriate material for…

An ontology model for nursing narratives with natural language generation technology.

PubMed

Min, Yul Ha; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Jeon, Eunjoo; Lee, Joo Yun; Jo, Soo Jung

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an ontology model to generate nursing narratives as natural as human language from the entity-attribute-value triplets of a detailed clinical model using natural language generation technology. The model was based on the types of information and documentation time of the information along the nursing process. The typesof information are data characterizing the patient status, inferences made by the nurse from the patient data, and nursing actions selected by the nurse to change the patient status. This information was linked to the nursing process based on the time of documentation. We describe a case study illustrating the application of this model in an acute-care setting. The proposed model provides a strategy for designing an electronic nursing record system.

A method of LED free-form tilted lens rapid modeling based on scheme language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, Yidan

2017-10-01

According to nonimaging optical principle and traditional LED free-form surface lens, a new kind of LED free-form tilted lens was designed. And a method of rapid modeling based on Scheme language was proposed. The mesh division method was applied to obtain the corresponding surface configuration according to the character of the light source and the desired energy distribution on the illumination plane. Then 3D modeling software and the Scheme language programming are used to generate lens model respectively. With the help of optical simulation software, a light source with the size of 1mm*1mm*1mm in volume is used in experiment, and the lateral migration distance of illumination area is 0.5m, in which total one million rays are computed. We could acquire the simulated results of both models. The simulated output result shows that the Scheme language can prevent the model deformation problems caused by the process of the model transfer, and the degree of illumination uniformity is reached to 82%, and the offset angle is 26°. Also, the efficiency of modeling process is greatly increased by using Scheme language.

The Iterated Classification Game: A New Model of the Cultural Transmission of Language

PubMed Central

Swarup, Samarth; Gasser, Les

2010-01-01

The Iterated Classification Game (ICG) combines the Classification Game with the Iterated Learning Model (ILM) to create a more realistic model of the cultural transmission of language through generations. It includes both learning from parents and learning from peers. Further, it eliminates some of the chief criticisms of the ILM: that it does not study grounded languages, that it does not include peer learning, and that it builds in a bias for compositional languages. We show that, over the span of a few generations, a stable linguistic system emerges that can be acquired very quickly by each generation, is compositional, and helps the agents to solve the classification problem with which they are faced. The ICG also leads to a different interpretation of the language acquisition process. It suggests that the role of parents is to initialize the linguistic system of the child in such a way that subsequent interaction with peers results in rapid convergence to the correct language. PMID:20190877

Modelling MIZ dynamics in a global model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rynders, Stefanie; Aksenov, Yevgeny; Feltham, Daniel; Nurser, George; Naveira Garabato, Alberto

2016-04-01

Exposure of large, previously ice-covered areas of the Arctic Ocean to the wind and surface ocean waves results in the Arctic pack ice cover becoming more fragmented and mobile, with large regions of ice cover evolving into the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ). The need for better climate predictions, along with growing economic activity in the Polar Oceans, necessitates climate and forecasting models that can simulate fragmented sea ice with a greater fidelity. Current models are not fully fit for the purpose, since they neither model surface ocean waves in the MIZ, nor account for the effect of floe fragmentation on drag, nor include sea ice rheology that represents both the now thinner pack ice and MIZ ice dynamics. All these processes affect the momentum transfer to the ocean. We present initial results from a global ocean model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) coupled to the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE. The model setup implements a novel rheological formulation for sea ice dynamics, accounting for ice floe collisions, thus offering a seamless framework for pack ice and MIZ simulations. The effect of surface waves on ice motion is included through wave pressure and the turbulent kinetic energy of ice floes. In the multidecadal model integrations we examine MIZ and basin scale sea ice and oceanic responses to the changes in ice dynamics. We analyse model sensitivities and attribute them to key sea ice and ocean dynamical mechanisms. The results suggest that the effect of the new ice rheology is confined to the MIZ. However with the current increase in summer MIZ area, which is projected to continue and may become the dominant type of sea ice in the Arctic, we argue that the effects of the combined sea ice rheology will be noticeable in large areas of the Arctic Ocean, affecting sea ice and ocean. With this study we assert that to make more accurate sea ice predictions in the changing Arctic, models need to include MIZ dynamics and physics.

LEMS: a language for expressing complex biological models in concise and hierarchical form and its use in underpinning NeuroML 2.

PubMed

Cannon, Robert C; Gleeson, Padraig; Crook, Sharon; Ganapathy, Gautham; Marin, Boris; Piasini, Eugenio; Silver, R Angus

2014-01-01

Computational models are increasingly important for studying complex neurophysiological systems. As scientific tools, it is essential that such models can be reproduced and critically evaluated by a range of scientists. However, published models are currently implemented using a diverse set of modeling approaches, simulation tools, and computer languages making them inaccessible and difficult to reproduce. Models also typically contain concepts that are tightly linked to domain-specific simulators, or depend on knowledge that is described exclusively in text-based documentation. To address these issues we have developed a compact, hierarchical, XML-based language called LEMS (Low Entropy Model Specification), that can define the structure and dynamics of a wide range of biological models in a fully machine readable format. We describe how LEMS underpins the latest version of NeuroML and show that this framework can define models of ion channels, synapses, neurons and networks. Unit handling, often a source of error when reusing models, is built into the core of the language by specifying physical quantities in models in terms of the base dimensions. We show how LEMS, together with the open source Java and Python based libraries we have developed, facilitates the generation of scripts for multiple neuronal simulators and provides a route for simulator free code generation. We establish that LEMS can be used to define models from systems biology and map them to neuroscience-domain specific simulators, enabling models to be shared between these traditionally separate disciplines. LEMS and NeuroML 2 provide a new, comprehensive framework for defining computational models of neuronal and other biological systems in a machine readable format, making them more reproducible and increasing the transparency and accessibility of their underlying structure and properties.

LEMS: a language for expressing complex biological models in concise and hierarchical form and its use in underpinning NeuroML 2

PubMed Central

Cannon, Robert C.; Gleeson, Padraig; Crook, Sharon; Ganapathy, Gautham; Marin, Boris; Piasini, Eugenio; Silver, R. Angus

2014-01-01

Computational models are increasingly important for studying complex neurophysiological systems. As scientific tools, it is essential that such models can be reproduced and critically evaluated by a range of scientists. However, published models are currently implemented using a diverse set of modeling approaches, simulation tools, and computer languages making them inaccessible and difficult to reproduce. Models also typically contain concepts that are tightly linked to domain-specific simulators, or depend on knowledge that is described exclusively in text-based documentation. To address these issues we have developed a compact, hierarchical, XML-based language called LEMS (Low Entropy Model Specification), that can define the structure and dynamics of a wide range of biological models in a fully machine readable format. We describe how LEMS underpins the latest version of NeuroML and show that this framework can define models of ion channels, synapses, neurons and networks. Unit handling, often a source of error when reusing models, is built into the core of the language by specifying physical quantities in models in terms of the base dimensions. We show how LEMS, together with the open source Java and Python based libraries we have developed, facilitates the generation of scripts for multiple neuronal simulators and provides a route for simulator free code generation. We establish that LEMS can be used to define models from systems biology and map them to neuroscience-domain specific simulators, enabling models to be shared between these traditionally separate disciplines. LEMS and NeuroML 2 provide a new, comprehensive framework for defining computational models of neuronal and other biological systems in a machine readable format, making them more reproducible and increasing the transparency and accessibility of their underlying structure and properties. PMID:25309419

RELATING ACCUMULATOR MODEL PARAMETERS AND NEURAL DYNAMICS

PubMed Central

Purcell, Braden A.; Palmeri, Thomas J.

2016-01-01

Accumulator models explain decision-making as an accumulation of evidence to a response threshold. Specific model parameters are associated with specific model mechanisms, such as the time when accumulation begins, the average rate of evidence accumulation, and the threshold. These mechanisms determine both the within-trial dynamics of evidence accumulation and the predicted behavior. Cognitive modelers usually infer what mechanisms vary during decision-making by seeing what parameters vary when a model is fitted to observed behavior. The recent identification of neural activity with evidence accumulation suggests that it may be possible to directly infer what mechanisms vary from an analysis of how neural dynamics vary. However, evidence accumulation is often noisy, and noise complicates the relationship between accumulator dynamics and the underlying mechanisms leading to those dynamics. To understand what kinds of inferences can be made about decision-making mechanisms based on measures of neural dynamics, we measured simulated accumulator model dynamics while systematically varying model parameters. In some cases, decision- making mechanisms can be directly inferred from dynamics, allowing us to distinguish between models that make identical behavioral predictions. In other cases, however, different parameterized mechanisms produce surprisingly similar dynamics, limiting the inferences that can be made based on measuring dynamics alone. Analyzing neural dynamics can provide a powerful tool to resolve model mimicry at the behavioral level, but we caution against drawing inferences based solely on neural analyses. Instead, simultaneous modeling of behavior and neural dynamics provides the most powerful approach to understand decision-making and likely other aspects of cognition and perception. PMID:28392584

Development of Clinical Contents Model Markup Language for Electronic Health Records

PubMed Central

Yun, Ji-Hyun; Kim, Yoon

2012-01-01

Objectives To develop dedicated markup language for clinical contents models (CCM) to facilitate the active use of CCM in electronic health record systems. Methods Based on analysis of the structure and characteristics of CCM in the clinical domain, we designed extensible markup language (XML) based CCM markup language (CCML) schema manually. Results CCML faithfully reflects CCM in both the syntactic and semantic aspects. As this language is based on XML, it can be expressed and processed in computer systems and can be used in a technology-neutral way. Conclusions CCML has the following strengths: it is machine-readable and highly human-readable, it does not require a dedicated parser, and it can be applied for existing electronic health record systems. PMID:23115739

Data-Flow Based Model Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saad, Christian; Bauer, Bernhard

2010-01-01

The concept of (meta) modeling combines an intuitive way of formalizing the structure of an application domain with a high expressiveness that makes it suitable for a wide variety of use cases and has therefore become an integral part of many areas in computer science. While the definition of modeling languages through the use of meta models, e.g. in Unified Modeling Language (UML), is a well-understood process, their validation and the extraction of behavioral information is still a challenge. In this paper we present a novel approach for dynamic model analysis along with several fields of application. Examining the propagation of information along the edges and nodes of the model graph allows to extend and simplify the definition of semantic constraints in comparison to the capabilities offered by e.g. the Object Constraint Language. Performing a flow-based analysis also enables the simulation of dynamic behavior, thus providing an "abstract interpretation"-like analysis method for the modeling domain.

Exploring the Dynamic Long-Term Interaction between Cognitive and Psychosocial Resources in Adult Second Language Development at Varying Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serafini, Ellen J.

2017-01-01

This study draws on conceptual and methodological insights afforded within a dynamic systems perspective to explore shifting interrelationships between cognitive capacity and motivational resources in instructed adult second language (L2) learners of Spanish at increasing proficiency. Relationships that emerged showed both stability and…

Comparative Effectiveness of Echoic and Modeling Procedures in Language Instruction With Culturally Disadvantaged Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stern, Carolyn; Keislar, Evan

In an attempt to explore a systematic approach to language expansion and improved sentence structure, echoic and modeling procedures for language instruction were compared. Four hypotheses were formulated: (1) children who use modeling procedures will produce better structured sentences than children who use echoic prompting, (2) both echoic and…

Language extinction and linguistic fronts

PubMed Central

Isern, Neus; Fort, Joaquim

2014-01-01

Language diversity has become greatly endangered in the past centuries owing to processes of language shift from indigenous languages to other languages that are seen as socially and economically more advantageous, resulting in the death or doom of minority languages. In this paper, we define a new language competition model that can describe the historical decline of minority languages in competition with more advantageous languages. We then implement this non-spatial model as an interaction term in a reaction–diffusion system to model the evolution of the two competing languages. We use the results to estimate the speed at which the more advantageous language spreads geographically, resulting in the shrinkage of the area of dominance of the minority language. We compare the results from our model with the observed retreat in the area of influence of the Welsh language in the UK, obtaining a good agreement between the model and the observed data. PMID:24598207

Efficient Embedded Decoding of Neural Network Language Models in a Machine Translation System.

PubMed

Zamora-Martinez, Francisco; Castro-Bleda, Maria Jose

2018-02-22

Neural Network Language Models (NNLMs) are a successful approach to Natural Language Processing tasks, such as Machine Translation. We introduce in this work a Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system which fully integrates NNLMs in the decoding stage, breaking the traditional approach based on [Formula: see text]-best list rescoring. The neural net models (both language models (LMs) and translation models) are fully coupled in the decoding stage, allowing to more strongly influence the translation quality. Computational issues were solved by using a novel idea based on memorization and smoothing of the softmax constants to avoid their computation, which introduces a trade-off between LM quality and computational cost. These ideas were studied in a machine translation task with different combinations of neural networks used both as translation models and as target LMs, comparing phrase-based and [Formula: see text]-gram-based systems, showing that the integrated approach seems more promising for [Formula: see text]-gram-based systems, even with nonfull-quality NNLMs.

Structural Equation Modeling Reporting Practices for Language Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ockey, Gary J.; Choi, Ikkyu

2015-01-01

Studies that use structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques are increasingly encountered in the language assessment literature. This popularity has created the need for a set of guidelines that can indicate what should be included in a research report and make it possible for research consumers to judge the appropriateness of the…

From language identification to language distance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gamallo, Pablo; Pichel, José Ramom; Alegria, Iñaki

2017-10-01

In this paper, we define two quantitative distances to measure how far apart two languages are. The distance measure that we have identified as more accurate is based on the perplexity of n-gram models extracted from text corpora. An experiment to compare forty-four European languages has been performed. For this purpose, we computed the distances for all the possible language pairs and built a network whose nodes are languages and edges are distances. The network we have built on the basis of linguistic distances represents the current map of similarities and divergences among the main languages of Europe.

Comparison between a Dynamic Assessment Procedure and the WMLS-R in Distinguishing Language Abilities among Hispanic Children in First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spero, Jill Marie

2012-01-01

Historically, educators have had significant difficulty assessing the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners, especially when determining special education classification. Hispanic students seem especially vulnerable to schools' traditionally inadequate means of assessing language ability in CLD students. Dynamic assessment…

Why the Language of Work Is Not Our Best Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newbold, Patricia L.

2011-01-01

As Danny G. Langdon wrote in September 2010, for human performance technology to be a science, it needs commonly understood and applied models. He proposed his language of work (LOW) model. This article presents arguments for a very different model, one that cuts the cord to our profession's beginnings in the design of programmed instruction,…

The dual loop model: its relation to language and other modalities

PubMed Central

Rijntjes, Michel; Weiller, Cornelius; Bormann, Tobias; Musso, Mariacristina

2012-01-01

The current neurobiological consensus of a general dual loop system scaffolding human and primate brains gives evidence that the dorsal and ventral connections subserve similar functions, independent of the modality and species. However, most current commentators agree that although bees dance and chimpanzees grunt, these systems of communication differ qualitatively from human language. So why is language unique to humans? We discuss anatomical differences between humans and other animals, the meaning of lesion studies in patients, the role of inner speech, and compare functional imaging studies in language with other modalities in respect to the dual loop model. These aspects might be helpful for understanding what kind of biological system the language faculty is, and how it relates to other systems in our own species and others. PMID:22783188

Time and place in the prehistory of the Aslian languages.

PubMed

Dunn, Michael; Kruspe, Nicole; Burenhult, Niclas

2013-01-01

The Aslian language family, located in the Malay Peninsula and southern Thai Isthmus, consists of four distinct branches comprising some 18 languages. These languages predate the now dominant Malay and Thai. The speakers of Aslian languages exhibit some of the highest degree of phylogenetic and societal diversity present in Mainland Southeast Asia today, among them a foraging tradition particularly associated with locally ancient, Pleistocene genetic lineages. Little advance has been made in our understanding of the linguistic prehistory of this region or how such complexity arose. In this article we present a Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of a large sample of Aslian languages. An explicit geographic model of diffusion is combined with a cognate birth-word death model of lexical evolution to infer the location of the major events of Aslian cladogenesis. The resultant phylogenetic trees are calibrated against dates in the historical and archaeological record to infer a detailed picture of Aslian language history, addressing a number of outstanding questions, including (1) whether the root ancestor of Aslian was spoken in the Malay Peninsula, or whether the family had already divided before entry, and (2) the dynamics of the movement of Aslian languages across the peninsula, with a particular focus on its spread to the indigenous foragers. Copyright © 2013 Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309.

E?ffects of English Language Proficiency on the Choice of Language Learning Strategies by Saudi English-Major Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Javid, Choudhary Z.; Al-thubaiti, Turki S.; Uthman, Awwadh

2013-01-01

It is reported that language learning is a creative and dynamic process and the learners are active partners in this process. This trend in language teaching motivated the researchers to investigate the learners' individual differences and the identification of language learning strategies (LLS) has become a major area of interest in this regard…

Dynamic knowledge representation using agent-based modeling: ontology instantiation and verification of conceptual models.

PubMed

An, Gary

2009-01-01

The sheer volume of biomedical research threatens to overwhelm the capacity of individuals to effectively process this information. Adding to this challenge is the multiscale nature of both biological systems and the research community as a whole. Given this volume and rate of generation of biomedical information, the research community must develop methods for robust representation of knowledge in order for individuals, and the community as a whole, to "know what they know." Despite increasing emphasis on "data-driven" research, the fact remains that researchers guide their research using intuitively constructed conceptual models derived from knowledge extracted from publications, knowledge that is generally qualitatively expressed using natural language. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational modeling method that is suited to translating the knowledge expressed in biomedical texts into dynamic representations of the conceptual models generated by researchers. The hierarchical object-class orientation of ABM maps well to biomedical ontological structures, facilitating the translation of ontologies into instantiated models. Furthermore, ABM is suited to producing the nonintuitive behaviors that often "break" conceptual models. Verification in this context is focused at determining the plausibility of a particular conceptual model, and qualitative knowledge representation is often sufficient for this goal. Thus, utilized in this fashion, ABM can provide a powerful adjunct to other computational methods within the research process, as well as providing a metamodeling framework to enhance the evolution of biomedical ontologies.

Adaptive Plasticity in the Healthy Language Network: Implications for Language Recovery after Stroke

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Across the last three decades, the application of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has substantially increased the current knowledge of the brain's potential to undergo rapid short-term reorganization on the systems level. A large number of studies applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the healthy brain to probe the functional relevance and interaction of specific areas for different cognitive processes. NIBS is also increasingly being used to induce adaptive plasticity in motor and cognitive networks and shape cognitive functions. Recently, NIBS has been combined with electrophysiological techniques to modulate neural oscillations of specific cortical networks. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in the use of NIBS to modulate neural activity and effective connectivity in the healthy language network, with a special focus on the combination of NIBS and neuroimaging or electrophysiological approaches. Moreover, we outline how these results can be transferred to the lesioned brain to unravel the dynamics of reorganization processes in poststroke aphasia. We conclude with a critical discussion on the potential of NIBS to facilitate language recovery after stroke and propose a phase-specific model for the application of NIBS in language rehabilitation. PMID:27830094

A methodology to annotate systems biology markup language models with the synthetic biology open language.

PubMed

Roehner, Nicholas; Myers, Chris J

2014-02-21

Recently, we have begun to witness the potential of synthetic biology, noted here in the form of bacteria and yeast that have been genetically engineered to produce biofuels, manufacture drug precursors, and even invade tumor cells. The success of these projects, however, has often failed in translation and application to new projects, a problem exacerbated by a lack of engineering standards that combine descriptions of the structure and function of DNA. To address this need, this paper describes a methodology to connect the systems biology markup language (SBML) to the synthetic biology open language (SBOL), existing standards that describe biochemical models and DNA components, respectively. Our methodology involves first annotating SBML model elements such as species and reactions with SBOL DNA components. A graph is then constructed from the model, with vertices corresponding to elements within the model and edges corresponding to the cause-and-effect relationships between these elements. Lastly, the graph is traversed to assemble the annotating DNA components into a composite DNA component, which is used to annotate the model itself and can be referenced by other composite models and DNA components. In this way, our methodology can be used to build up a hierarchical library of models annotated with DNA components. Such a library is a useful input to any future genetic technology mapping algorithm that would automate the process of composing DNA components to satisfy a behavioral specification. Our methodology for SBML-to-SBOL annotation is implemented in the latest version of our genetic design automation (GDA) software tool, iBioSim.

New 3D model for dynamics modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perez, Alain

1994-05-01

The wrist articulation represents one of the most complex mechanical systems of the human body. It is composed of eight bones rolling and sliding along their surface and along the faces of the five metacarpals of the hand and the two bones of the arm. The wrist dynamics are however fundamental for the hand movement, but it is so complex that it still remains incompletely explored. This work is a part of a new concept of computer-assisted surgery, which consists in developing computer models to perfect surgery acts by predicting their consequences. The modeling of the wrist dynamics are based first on the static model of its bones in three dimensions. This 3D model must optimise the collision detection procedure which is the necessary step to estimate the physical contact constraints. As many other possible computer vision models do not fit with enough precision to this problem, a new 3D model has been developed thanks to the median axis of the digital distance map of the bones reconstructed volume. The collision detection procedure is then simplified for contacts are detected between spheres. The experiment of this original 3D dynamic model products realistic computer animation images of solids in contact. It is now necessary to detect ligaments on digital medical images and to model them in order to complete a wrist model.

A new algorithm for modeling friction in dynamic mechanical systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, R. E.

1988-01-01

A method of modeling friction forces that impede the motion of parts of dynamic mechanical systems is described. Conventional methods in which the friction effect is assumed a constant force, or torque, in a direction opposite to the relative motion, are applicable only to those cases where applied forces are large in comparison to the friction, and where there is little interest in system behavior close to the times of transitions through zero velocity. An algorithm is described that provides accurate determination of friction forces over a wide range of applied force and velocity conditions. The method avoids the simulation errors resulting from a finite integration interval used in connection with a conventional friction model, as is the case in many digital computer-based simulations. The algorithm incorporates a predictive calculation based on initial conditions of motion, externally applied forces, inertia, and integration step size. The predictive calculation in connection with an external integration process provides an accurate determination of both static and Coulomb friction forces and resulting motions in dynamic simulations. Accuracy of the results is improved over that obtained with conventional methods and a relatively large integration step size is permitted. A function block for incorporation in a specific simulation program is described. The general form of the algorithm facilitates implementation with various programming languages such as FORTRAN or C, as well as with other simulation programs.

A Display of Patterns of Change in Learners' Motivation: Dynamics Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sel?uk, Özge; Erten, Ismail Hakki

2017-01-01

Getting to understand patterns and causes of motivational changes experienced by language learners while studying a foreign language can be of significant value. This paper aims to explore patterns of such fluctuations at the tertiary level. Through a dynamic systems perspective, this study employed Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling to generate…

Learning a generative probabilistic grammar of experience: a process-level model of language acquisition.

PubMed

Kolodny, Oren; Lotem, Arnon; Edelman, Shimon

2015-03-01

We introduce a set of biologically and computationally motivated design choices for modeling the learning of language, or of other types of sequential, hierarchically structured experience and behavior, and describe an implemented system that conforms to these choices and is capable of unsupervised learning from raw natural-language corpora. Given a stream of linguistic input, our model incrementally learns a grammar that captures its statistical patterns, which can then be used to parse or generate new data. The grammar constructed in this manner takes the form of a directed weighted graph, whose nodes are recursively (hierarchically) defined patterns over the elements of the input stream. We evaluated the model in seventeen experiments, grouped into five studies, which examined, respectively, (a) the generative ability of grammar learned from a corpus of natural language, (b) the characteristics of the learned representation, (c) sequence segmentation and chunking, (d) artificial grammar learning, and (e) certain types of structure dependence. The model's performance largely vindicates our design choices, suggesting that progress in modeling language acquisition can be made on a broad front-ranging from issues of generativity to the replication of human experimental findings-by bringing biological and computational considerations, as well as lessons from prior efforts, to bear on the modeling approach. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Word-level language modeling for P300 spellers based on discriminative graphical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delgado Saa, Jaime F.; de Pesters, Adriana; McFarland, Dennis; Çetin, Müjdat

2015-04-01

Objective. In this work we propose a probabilistic graphical model framework that uses language priors at the level of words as a mechanism to increase the performance of P300-based spellers. Approach. This paper is concerned with brain-computer interfaces based on P300 spellers. Motivated by P300 spelling scenarios involving communication based on a limited vocabulary, we propose a probabilistic graphical model framework and an associated classification algorithm that uses learned statistical models of language at the level of words. Exploiting such high-level contextual information helps reduce the error rate of the speller. Main results. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach offers several advantages over existing methods. Most importantly, it increases the classification accuracy while reducing the number of times the letters need to be flashed, increasing the communication rate of the system. Significance. The proposed approach models all the variables in the P300 speller in a unified framework and has the capability to correct errors in previous letters in a word, given the data for the current one. The structure of the model we propose allows the use of efficient inference algorithms, which in turn makes it possible to use this approach in real-time applications.

Towards a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology: Framing the language-ready brain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arbib, Michael A.

2016-03-01

We make the case for developing a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology to inform the analysis of the function and evolution of the human brain. First, we update the mirror system hypothesis on the evolution of the language-ready brain by (i) modeling action and action recognition and opportunistic scheduling of macaque brains to hypothesize the nature of the last common ancestor of macaque and human (LCA-m); and then we (ii) introduce dynamic brain modeling to show how apes could acquire gesture through ontogenetic ritualization, hypothesizing the nature of evolution from LCA-m to the last common ancestor of chimpanzee and human (LCA-c). We then (iii) hypothesize the role of imitation, pantomime, protosign and protospeech in biological and cultural evolution from LCA-c to Homo sapiens with a language-ready brain. Second, we suggest how cultural evolution in Homo sapiens led from protolanguages to full languages with grammar and compositional semantics. Third, we assess the similarities and differences between the dorsal and ventral streams in audition and vision as the basis for presenting and comparing two models of language processing in the human brain: A model of (i) the auditory dorsal and ventral streams in sentence comprehension; and (ii) the visual dorsal and ventral streams in defining ;what language is about; in both production and perception of utterances related to visual scenes provide the basis for (iii) a first step towards a synthesis and a look at challenges for further research.

Socioeconomic Patterns and Educational Performance Based on Language-of-Instruction Models in the Basque Autonomous Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elosua, Paula; Egaña, Maria

2017-01-01

One of the focuses of language revitalisation policies is to incorporate minority languages into education. Evaluation of new language-of-instruction models is usually based on the increase of minority language speakers. However, it is also important from an educational perspective to study the possible relationship between performance and…

A Survey of Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Liang; Coleman, James A.

2009-01-01

In all educational contexts, technological developments and changes in pedagogical theory mean that any picture of current practice and attitudes must be dynamic. In many countries, the learning outcomes of foreign language courses now include intercultural communicative competence (ICC), although the precise model for teaching ICC varies even…

Dynamic Modeling of ALS Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Harry

2002-01-01

The purpose of dynamic modeling and simulation of Advanced Life Support (ALS) systems is to help design them. Static steady state systems analysis provides basic information and is necessary to guide dynamic modeling, but static analysis is not sufficient to design and compare systems. ALS systems must respond to external input variations and internal off-nominal behavior. Buffer sizing, resupply scheduling, failure response, and control system design are aspects of dynamic system design. We develop two dynamic mass flow models and use them in simulations to evaluate systems issues, optimize designs, and make system design trades. One model is of nitrogen leakage in the space station, the other is of a waste processor failure in a regenerative life support system. Most systems analyses are concerned with optimizing the cost/benefit of a system at its nominal steady-state operating point. ALS analysis must go beyond the static steady state to include dynamic system design. All life support systems exhibit behavior that varies over time. ALS systems must respond to equipment operating cycles, repair schedules, and occasional off-nominal behavior or malfunctions. Biological components, such as bioreactors, composters, and food plant growth chambers, usually have operating cycles or other complex time behavior. Buffer sizes, material stocks, and resupply rates determine dynamic system behavior and directly affect system mass and cost. Dynamic simulation is needed to avoid the extremes of costly over-design of buffers and material reserves or system failure due to insufficient buffers and lack of stored material.

An empirical generative framework for computational modeling of language acquisition.

PubMed

Waterfall, Heidi R; Sandbank, Ben; Onnis, Luca; Edelman, Shimon

2010-06-01

This paper reports progress in developing a computer model of language acquisition in the form of (1) a generative grammar that is (2) algorithmically learnable from realistic corpus data, (3) viable in its large-scale quantitative performance and (4) psychologically real. First, we describe new algorithmic methods for unsupervised learning of generative grammars from raw CHILDES data and give an account of the generative performance of the acquired grammars. Next, we summarize findings from recent longitudinal and experimental work that suggests how certain statistically prominent structural properties of child-directed speech may facilitate language acquisition. We then present a series of new analyses of CHILDES data indicating that the desired properties are indeed present in realistic child-directed speech corpora. Finally, we suggest how our computational results, behavioral findings, and corpus-based insights can be integrated into a next-generation model aimed at meeting the four requirements of our modeling framework.

Differential Equation Models for Sharp Threshold Dynamics

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-01

dynamics, and the Lanchester model of armed conflict, where the loss of a key capability drastically changes dynamics. We derive and demonstrate a step...dynamics using differential equations. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Differential Equations, Markov Population Process, S-I-R Epidemic, Lanchester Model 16...infection, where a detection event drastically changes dynamics, and the Lanchester model of armed conflict, where the loss of a key capability

A traffic priority language for collision-free navigation of autonomous mobile robots in dynamic environments.

PubMed

Bourbakis, N G

1997-01-01

This paper presents a generic traffic priority language, called KYKLOFORTA, used by autonomous robots for collision-free navigation in a dynamic unknown or known navigation space. In a previous work by X. Grossmman (1988), a set of traffic control rules was developed for the navigation of the robots on the lines of a two-dimensional (2-D) grid and a control center coordinated and synchronized their movements. In this work, the robots are considered autonomous: they are moving anywhere and in any direction inside the free space, and there is no need of a central control to coordinate and synchronize them. The requirements for each robot are i) visual perception, ii) range sensors, and iii) the ability of each robot to detect other moving objects in the same free navigation space, define the other objects perceived size, their velocity and their directions. Based on these assumptions, a traffic priority language is needed for each robot, making it able to decide during the navigation and avoid possible collision with other moving objects. The traffic priority language proposed here is based on a set of primitive traffic priority alphabet and rules which compose pattern of corridors for the application of the traffic priority rules.

Il contributo di G. Braga alla Sociologia del linguaggio (The Contributions of G. Braga to the Sociology of Language).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tessarolo, Marisella

1989-01-01

Discusses Braga's contribution to the study of the sociology of language. Braga developed a dynamic interdisciplinary model of verbal communication based on theories of sociology and linguistics and stressed the importance of language in the acculturation of an individual and in the determination of that individual's status in society. (CFM)

In the Name of Language: School-Based Language Revitalization, Strategic Solidarities, and State Power in the French Basque Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heidemann, Kai A.

2014-01-01

This article explores the mobilization dynamics of a school-based minority language revitalization initiative in the French Basque Country, known as the Ikastola Movement. Bringing the study of language revitalization into dialogue with social movement theory, I discuss how the solidarity of Basque language activists was influenced by state-level…

Equation-based languages – A new paradigm for building energy modeling, simulation and optimization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wetter, Michael; Bonvini, Marco; Nouidui, Thierry S.

Most of the state-of-the-art building simulation programs implement models in imperative programming languages. This complicates modeling and excludes the use of certain efficient methods for simulation and optimization. In contrast, equation-based modeling languages declare relations among variables, thereby allowing the use of computer algebra to enable much simpler schematic modeling and to generate efficient code for simulation and optimization. We contrast the two approaches in this paper. We explain how such manipulations support new use cases. In the first of two examples, we couple models of the electrical grid, multiple buildings, HVAC systems and controllers to test a controller thatmore » adjusts building room temperatures and PV inverter reactive power to maintain power quality. In the second example, we contrast the computing time for solving an optimal control problem for a room-level model predictive controller with and without symbolic manipulations. As a result, exploiting the equation-based language led to 2, 200 times faster solution« less

Equation-based languages – A new paradigm for building energy modeling, simulation and optimization

DOE PAGES

Wetter, Michael; Bonvini, Marco; Nouidui, Thierry S.

2016-04-01

Most of the state-of-the-art building simulation programs implement models in imperative programming languages. This complicates modeling and excludes the use of certain efficient methods for simulation and optimization. In contrast, equation-based modeling languages declare relations among variables, thereby allowing the use of computer algebra to enable much simpler schematic modeling and to generate efficient code for simulation and optimization. We contrast the two approaches in this paper. We explain how such manipulations support new use cases. In the first of two examples, we couple models of the electrical grid, multiple buildings, HVAC systems and controllers to test a controller thatmore » adjusts building room temperatures and PV inverter reactive power to maintain power quality. In the second example, we contrast the computing time for solving an optimal control problem for a room-level model predictive controller with and without symbolic manipulations. As a result, exploiting the equation-based language led to 2, 200 times faster solution« less

Dynamic spatial organization of the occipito-temporal word form area for second language processing.

PubMed

Gao, Yue; Sun, Yafeng; Lu, Chunming; Ding, Guosheng; Guo, Taomei; Malins, Jeffrey G; Booth, James R; Peng, Danling; Liu, Li

2017-08-01

Despite the left occipito-temporal region having shown consistent activation in visual word form processing across numerous studies in different languages, the mechanisms by which word forms of second languages are processed in this region remain unclear. To examine this more closely, 16 Chinese-English and 14 English-Chinese late bilinguals were recruited to perform lexical decision tasks to visually presented words in both their native and second languages (L1 and L2) during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Here we demonstrate that visual word form processing for L1 versus L2 engaged different spatial areas of the left occipito-temporal region. Namely, the spatial organization of the visual word form processing in the left occipito-temporal region is more medial and posterior for L2 than L1 processing in Chinese-English bilinguals, whereas activation is more lateral and anterior for L2 in English-Chinese bilinguals. In addition, for Chinese-English bilinguals, more lateral recruitment of the occipito-temporal region was correlated with higher L2 proficiency, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L1-preferred mechanisms. For English-Chinese bilinguals, higher L2 proficiency was correlated with more lateral and anterior activation of the occipito-temporal region, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L2-preferred mechanisms. Taken together, our results indicate that L1 and L2 recruit spatially different areas of the occipito-temporal region in visual word processing when the two scripts belong to different writing systems, and that the spatial organization of this region for L2 visual word processing is dynamically modulated by L2 proficiency. Specifically, proficiency in L2 in Chinese-English is associated with assimilation to the native language mechanisms, whereas L2 in English-Chinese is associated with accommodation to second language mechanisms. Copyright © 2017

Integrating Articulatory Constraints into Models of Second Language Phonological Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colantoni, Laura; Steele, Jeffrey

2008-01-01

Models such as Eckman's markedness differential hypothesis, Flege's speech learning model, and Brown's feature-based theory of perception seek to explain and predict the relative difficulty second language (L2) learners face when acquiring new or similar sounds. In this paper, we test their predictive adequacy as concerns native English speakers'…

A Policy Language for Modelling Recommendations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abou El Kalam, Anas; Balbiani, Philippe

While current and emergent applications become more and more complex, most of existing security policies and models only consider a yes/no response to the access requests. Consequently, modelling, formalizing and implementing permissions, obligations and prohibitions do not cover the richness of all the possible scenarios. In fact, several applications have access rules with the recommendation access modality. In this paper we focus on the problem of formalizing security policies with recommendation needs. The aim is to provide a generic domain-independent formal system for modelling not only permissions, prohibitions and obligations, but also recommendations. In this respect, we present our logic-based language, the semantics, the truth conditions, our axiomatic as well as inference rules. We also give a representative use case with our specification of recommendation requirements. Finally, we explain how our logical framework could be used to query the security policy and to check its consistency.

A Statistical-Physics Approach to Language Acquisition and Language Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cassandro, Marzio; Collet, Pierre; Galves, Antonio; Galves, Charlotte

1999-02-01

The aim of this paper is to explain why Statistical Physics can help understanding two related linguistic questions. The first question is how to model first language acquisition by a child. The second question is how language change proceeds in time. Our approach is based on a Gibbsian model for the interface between syntax and prosody. We also present a simulated annealing model of language acquisition, which extends the Triggering Learning Algorithm recently introduced in the linguistic literature.

Why Are There Developmental Stages in Language Learning? A Developmental Robotics Model of Language Development.

PubMed

Morse, Anthony F; Cangelosi, Angelo

2017-02-01

Most theories of learning would predict a gradual acquisition and refinement of skills as learning progresses, and while some highlight exponential growth, this fails to explain why natural cognitive development typically progresses in stages. Models that do span multiple developmental stages typically have parameters to "switch" between stages. We argue that by taking an embodied view, the interaction between learning mechanisms, the resulting behavior of the agent, and the opportunities for learning that the environment provides can account for the stage-wise development of cognitive abilities. We summarize work relevant to this hypothesis and suggest two simple mechanisms that account for some developmental transitions: neural readiness focuses on changes in the neural substrate resulting from ongoing learning, and perceptual readiness focuses on the perceptual requirements for learning new tasks. Previous work has demonstrated these mechanisms in replications of a wide variety of infant language experiments, spanning multiple developmental stages. Here we piece this work together as a single model of ongoing learning with no parameter changes at all. The model, an instance of the Epigenetic Robotics Architecture (Morse et al 2010) embodied on the iCub humanoid robot, exhibits ongoing multi-stage development while learning pre-linguistic and then basic language skills. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Haptics-based dynamic implicit solid modeling.

PubMed

Hua, Jing; Qin, Hong

2004-01-01

This paper systematically presents a novel, interactive solid modeling framework, Haptics-based Dynamic Implicit Solid Modeling, which is founded upon volumetric implicit functions and powerful physics-based modeling. In particular, we augment our modeling framework with a haptic mechanism in order to take advantage of additional realism associated with a 3D haptic interface. Our dynamic implicit solids are semi-algebraic sets of volumetric implicit functions and are governed by the principles of dynamics, hence responding to sculpting forces in a natural and predictable manner. In order to directly manipulate existing volumetric data sets as well as point clouds, we develop a hierarchical fitting algorithm to reconstruct and represent discrete data sets using our continuous implicit functions, which permit users to further design and edit those existing 3D models in real-time using a large variety of haptic and geometric toolkits, and visualize their interactive deformation at arbitrary resolution. The additional geometric and physical constraints afford more sophisticated control of the dynamic implicit solids. The versatility of our dynamic implicit modeling enables the user to easily modify both the geometry and the topology of modeled objects, while the inherent physical properties can offer an intuitive haptic interface for direct manipulation with force feedback.

Predictive models of forest dynamics.

PubMed

Purves, Drew; Pacala, Stephen

2008-06-13

Dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have shown that forest dynamics could dramatically alter the response of the global climate system to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next century. But there is little agreement between different DGVMs, making forest dynamics one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in predicting future climate. DGVM predictions could be strengthened by integrating the ecological realities of biodiversity and height-structured competition for light, facilitated by recent advances in the mathematics of forest modeling, ecological understanding of diverse forest communities, and the availability of forest inventory data.

Language Proficiency Tests in the Iranian Context: Do They Represent Communicative Language Testing Model?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatollah

2011-01-01

The Communicative Ability in language testing originates from a theory of language as communication proposed by Hymes (1972) and known as "communicative competence". The literature on language testing suggests that the practicality of communicative language testing (CLT) varies depending on how the instructors and teachers conceptualize…

Dynamic coupling of three hydrodynamic models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartnack, J. N.; Philip, G. T.; Rungoe, M.; Smith, G.; Johann, G.; Larsen, O.; Gregersen, J.; Butts, M. B.

2008-12-01

The need for integrated modelling is evidently present within the field of flood management and flood forecasting. Engineers, modellers and managers are faced with flood problems which transcend the classical hydrodynamic fields of urban, river and coastal flooding. Historically the modeller has been faced with having to select one hydrodynamic model to cover all the aspects of the potentially complex dynamics occurring in a flooding situation. Such a single hydrodynamic model does not cover all dynamics of flood modelling equally well. Thus the ideal choice may in fact be a combination of models. Models combining two numerical/hydrodynamic models are becoming more standard, typically these models combine a 1D river model with a 2D overland flow model or alternatively a 1D sewer/collection system model with a 2D overland solver. In complex coastal/urban areas the flood dynamics may include rivers/streams, collection/storm water systems along with the overland flow. The dynamics within all three areas is of the same time scale and there is feedback in the system across the couplings. These two aspects dictate a fully dynamic three way coupling as opposed to running the models sequentially. It will be shown that the main challenges of the three way coupling are time step issues related to the difference in numerical schemes used in the three model components and numerical instabilities caused by the linking of the model components. MIKE FLOOD combines the models MIKE 11, MIKE 21 and MOUSE into one modelling framework which makes it possible to couple any combination of river, urban and overland flow fully dynamically. The MIKE FLOOD framework will be presented with an overview of the coupling possibilities. The flood modelling concept will be illustrated through real life cases in Australia and in Germany. The real life cases reflect dynamics and interactions across all three model components which are not possible to reproduce using a two-way coupling alone. The

An individual-based model of zebrafish population dynamics accounting for energy dynamics.

PubMed

Beaudouin, Rémy; Goussen, Benoit; Piccini, Benjamin; Augustine, Starrlight; Devillers, James; Brion, François; Péry, Alexandre R R

2015-01-01

Developing population dynamics models for zebrafish is crucial in order to extrapolate from toxicity data measured at the organism level to biological levels relevant to support and enhance ecological risk assessment. To achieve this, a dynamic energy budget for individual zebrafish (DEB model) was coupled to an individual based model of zebrafish population dynamics (IBM model). Next, we fitted the DEB model to new experimental data on zebrafish growth and reproduction thus improving existing models. We further analysed the DEB-model and DEB-IBM using a sensitivity analysis. Finally, the predictions of the DEB-IBM were compared to existing observations on natural zebrafish populations and the predicted population dynamics are realistic. While our zebrafish DEB-IBM model can still be improved by acquiring new experimental data on the most uncertain processes (e.g. survival or feeding), it can already serve to predict the impact of compounds at the population level.

Dynamical Systems in Psychology: Linguistic Approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulis, William

Major goals for psychoanalysis and psychology are the description, analysis, prediction, and control of behaviour. Natural language has long provided the medium for the formulation of our theoretical understanding of behavior. But with the advent of nonlinear dynamics, a new language has appeared which offers promise to provide a quantitative theory of behaviour. In this paper, some of the limitations of natural and formal languages are discussed. Several approaches to understanding the links between natural and formal languages, as applied to the study of behavior, are discussed. These include symbolic dynamics, Moore's generalized shifts, Crutchfield's ɛ machines, and dynamical automata.

Aircraft Dynamic Modeling in Turbulence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morelli, Eugene A.; Cunninham, Kevin

2012-01-01

A method for accurately identifying aircraft dynamic models in turbulence was developed and demonstrated. The method uses orthogonal optimized multisine excitation inputs and an analytic method for enhancing signal-to-noise ratio for dynamic modeling in turbulence. A turbulence metric was developed to accurately characterize the turbulence level using flight measurements. The modeling technique was demonstrated in simulation, then applied to a subscale twin-engine jet transport aircraft in flight. Comparisons of modeling results obtained in turbulent air to results obtained in smooth air were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Modelling sea ice dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murawski, Jens; Kleine, Eckhard

2017-04-01

Sea ice remains one of the frontiers of ocean modelling and is of vital importance for the correct forecasts of the northern oceans. At large scale, it is commonly considered a continuous medium whose dynamics is modelled in terms of continuum mechanics. Its specifics are a matter of constitutive behaviour which may be characterised as rigid-plastic. The new developed sea ice dynamic module bases on general principles and follows a systematic approach to the problem. Both drift field and stress field are modelled by a variational property. Rigidity is treated by Lagrangian relaxation. Thus one is led to a sensible numerical method. Modelling fast ice remains to be a challenge. It is understood that ridging and the formation of grounded ice keels plays a role in the process. The ice dynamic model includes a parameterisation of the stress associated with grounded ice keels. Shear against the grounded bottom contact might lead to plastic deformation and the loss of integrity. The numerical scheme involves a potentially large system of linear equations which is solved by pre-conditioned iteration. The entire algorithm consists of several components which result from decomposing the problem. The algorithm has been implemented and tested in practice.